Nothing Special

Absent until further notice

2009-02-18T20:14:00.000-06:00

That is all.

Still alive

2008-12-29T19:24:00.003-06:00

Just letting those who check the blog know, yes..I'm still alive, lol. I just really haven't had the time to update as of lately. I've been swamped with games.

There was the English release of Persona 4 (played the Japanese version and loved it), Final Fantasy: Dissidia, and DJ Max Portable: Black Square Edition. So yeah..I've just been REALLY busy lately and I apologize for that. There are a few reviews I still need to get up and I need to change the playlist as well.

I hope to get all this done in January sometime, but we'll see. So, once again, I apologize for not maintaining the blog as I should be. I'll try to devote a whole week to getting up to date with the lack of updates.

So, for now my visitors, I ask that you please be patient with me.

Thank you!

Valkyria Chronicles Review

2008-12-08T18:57:00.004-06:00

Almost a month later and I'm finally back for the review of my latest title! I should've had this up sooner since I got it last month, but..as usual...I've been busy with gaming. Anyway, onto the review then!

Graphics: 9/10
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The canvas style used for Valkyria Chronicles (or "Senjou no Valkyrie" in Japan) certainly makes this game stand out above the rest. The graphics are highly detailed with all of the characters, backgrounds, guns, items, you name it. It all just simply looks brilliant and will leave you mesmerized after taking a first glance at this masterpiece.

The only reason I will not give this a 10 out of 10 is because there are actually some cutscenes where you can see the leaves on trees glitching through each other. There are also some clipping issues as well every now and then when a soldier wields a gun. These are very minor issues though and do not happen often at all, however..it is not perfect, so I will leave this at a 9.

Story: 8/10
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The story definitely is interesting, but..I've seen this before. You are a small country which is neutral in the war, but you also harbor a rather valuable resource that the much larger country tries to take by force. If they do though, then your own people will be put at risk of death, so you take up arms as a militia and fight against the military superpower as the underdogs and try to defend your homeland.

Now, despite seeing this story quite a few times, it still intrigues me because of the way it is portrayed in this game. I'm not too terribly fond of war games because most of time, I find that I am playing the same game, just with different characters. However..with Valkyria Chronicles, I didn't feel that way.

They added so much stuff to the story in general as well as the gameplay (which I'll get to in a moment) that it felt like something fresh, something new. I believe it also does a wonderful job of depicting war for what it really is. You will see civilians die, soldiers die, and countless of lives lost, then begin wondering what is it all for and question why we do such a thing to begin with.

The story is fantastic in this way and it really pulls you in with the atmosphere. I found myself crying, laughing, and in a fit of rage from time to time, haha. It definitely does a wonderful job at capturing your emotions, so I give it an 8.

Characters: 10/10
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This is definitely one of the best features about the game, hands down. When you first begin the game, you only have three or so characters and you don't have much freedom. However, after a few battles, that is when you get to the meat of the game.

Recruitment! You are allowed to recruit up to 20 characters from a roster and I just love this about the game. It really lets the player decide who they want on their team.

Now, don't get too excited. There are still circumstances where you must carry the main out on the field or two/three party members without being able to remove them from the battle, but those are story related and it will make sense when you have to. However, most of the time, you are able to send out 9 to 10 recruits to your liking.

Even if you must keep some story related characters on the field, 80% of the unit will consist of the people you decide goes out to fight, so don't worry. There are a total of 50+ recruits throughout the game and for all of your Skies of Arcadia fans out there, you'll be glad to know that SEGA has thrown in Vyse and Aika as recruits as well. Now, allow me to explain the different class types for these characters.

Scout - This type of unit is able to move at a great distance and carries a rifle, grenades, and healing item. You generally just want to rush your scouts out to check the surroundings for ambushes and enemies that may be waiting ahead. However, these units cannot take much damage as they are just used primarily for recon, so don't expect them to live through a barrage of bullets. Although, they can counter after being attacked if they are still alive (only if the enemy is within range).

Shocktrooper - This unit is the one you want on your front lines. They have great offense and defense, plus carry a machine gun along with grenades. They also have a healing item as well, but this comes standard for every unit. The Shocktrooper can't run too terribly far, but this is to accomodate for their excellent offense and defense, so be sure to keep these guys on your front line to take the hits and exchange blows with another unit. This unit can also counterattack after being shot at if the enemy is within firing range.

Lancer - This unit is specifically designed to take out tanks with something known as an "Anti-Tank" lance. It looks like a lance, but launches like a missle, basically. These units also have really great defense against bullets, grenades, and mortars, but can't go very far. They are your best bet for taking out those nasty tanks (since all the other units can do is throw grenades and damage the treads of the tank, really). One of the downsides to this unit is, it cannot counterattack after being shot at, so be sure to place them accordingly or you may find your Lancer down after a headshot.

Engineer - This unit is basically the mule of the group. Any character the Engineer runs past will have their grenades replenished (it takes one turn to replenish them normally) and they also carry large healing items as opposed to the normally issued small versions for the other units. This unit is also vital to keeping your tank's HP in check (in ANY mission..if your main tank is destroyed, it's game over), so they carry something known as a "repair tool" and can repair some lost HP on your tank's main body and treads as well as repair busted sandbags, and barricades. This unit can move at a pretty far distance like the Scout, but I believe the Scout can move just a little further. The Engineer can also counterattack with the rifle after being attacked, given the enemy is within range, however..much like the Scouts, they don't have very good defense or offense, so don't expect too much.

Sniper - The Sniper is self-explanatory, but..I'll fill in the blanks anyway. The Sniper is equipped with a rifle and healing items. Unfortunately though, a Sniper's movement is the lowest out of all the classes. This unit and the Lancer are the only two that have a limited supply of ammo for their weapon. So, you must wait until the next turn to have your ammo replenished or you can just run an Engineer by them and that will work as well. The only other thing I can really say about the Sniper is you can view through the scope to aim and use R3 to zoom in or out which is kind of cool.

Tank Commander - This isn't really a unit you get to recruit, but it is one you will have throughout the whole game. The only thing I can really say about this unit is, you have an unlimited supply of anti-tank rounds, a limited supply of mortars, and unlimited ammo for your machine gun. The tank can't move too terribly far, but that's to make up for its great offense. You can run over your allies and enemies, but unfortunately..this doesn't do any damage. Unlike other units though, this one gets two HP bars. One known as, "BHP" or "Body Health Points" and another known as, "THP" or "Tread Health Points". If your BHP reaches 0, then it's game over for our main. However, if your THP reaches 0, then that means you aren't allowed to move anymore until you have your treads fixed (there's no sort of special proceedure for this, just bring an Engineer to the tank and use the repair tool).

Now that we know about the different units, let's go over something known as "Potential" that characters have. A potential is something that every character has. It's a very interesting aspect to the game, I believe.

For example, one character may have a potential known as, "Pollen Allergy". That means, if you make them go through grassy areas, this potential will kick in and their defense will decrease (or maybe it's their evasion, I don't remember exactly). There is also something called, "Man hater", so if that character is anywhere near a male character, then their accuracy and power will decrease (I also don't recall if those are the exact stats that drop, but you get my point :P).

There are also good potentials as well, so be sure to take a look at the recruits' potentials as well when deciding whether or not you want him or her in your unit. Characters will also obtain new potentials over time. It definitely leaves open a lot of freedom and multiple possibilities for your lineup and I would say it is one of the best aspects of the game.

Gameplay: 9/10
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It was a bit of an experiment, but I honestly think it worked. This game is something known as an "Active Simulation Role Playing Game". It has the elements of your standard S-RPG, but when running around and whatnot, everything takes place in realtime, hence the term "Active".

In Valkyria Chronicles, everyone has something known as an AP Gauge for your character's "Action Points" spent during the player's turn. There are also something known as, "Command Points" or "CP" for short, which determines how often you get to move during your turn. Let's say you want to move a Scout to check out the surroundings, but find yourself stuck in crossfire after using up all of your AP.

Well, after using up all of your AP on that character, you know it would be bad to leave him or her there since they would probably die on the enemy's turn, so you would select the Scout unit again and move him or her quickly to safety. You can make a character move as many times as you'd like as long as you have CP. All footsoldiers take 1 CP to move and the tank takes 2 CP.

Everytime you want to move a unit though, their AP will decrease, so if you wish to move him or her again, instead of having a 100% AP bar, it would be 75% or so instead. There had to be some sort of drawback for allowing us to move the same character more than once, so there you have it. If you choose not to move and just perform an action instead, that will still count as using AP, so if you wish to actually move that unit on your next turn, then keep that in mind.

When you are moving your units, always keep an eye on your CP. I mean always. Your CP is determined by leadership, so if you put more story characters on the field, you will get more CP than just putting out some recruits. After you have spent all your CP, the Player Phase will end and it will go into Enemy Phase.

You get to watch where your opponent moves their units and whatnot until they use up all their CP as well. You can also choose to end your phase without using any CP if you'd like. As for the gameplay mechanics themselves..I liked them overall, but sometimes, I did find myself getting frustrated anyway.

Since actions take place in realtime, you may find yourself wanting to move your scout to a particular spot on the field, but have a couple of guys firing at you on the way there, then your Scout's HP drops to 0 before reaching their destination. Well, whenever a unit's HP reaches 0, they reach something known as "Critical Condition", so you must bring an allied unit (excluding the tank) to the downed unit if you wish to save them before they die. A medic will arrive and escort the unit off the field and back into something known as "Reserves" which I'll explain in a second.

You have three turns to rescue the unit. If you don't reach them by that point, they will die. Although..I have actually had a unit die in shorter than three turns for whatever reason, but I think specific conditions have to be met for such a thing to happen, so just remember 99% of the time, it will be a max of three turns.

Now, to talk about reserves. You always have a Main Base camp where your wounded units will be taken to by the medic and put into reserves in case you want to call them back out after they have recovered. It takes 1 CP to bring someone out of reserves, so keep that in mind.

You can also take the enemy's camps as well if you wish to bring your reserves out at a different location on the field. The enemy will usually have a couple of bases to request for reinforcements at, then a main base (which you have to capture 99% of the time to win the battle). In order to capture a base, you must first eliminate all soldiers around the base first. Once you do that, you can push X (action button) next to the enemy's flag and something known as "occupy" will pop up, so you can now change their flag to your own and take the base.

Once you do that, any reinforcements requested by the enemy will be cancelled. Fortunately though, this game allows you to save during a battle in case you make a mistake, so be sure to keep that in mind when planning your next move. I will also briefly cover something which will be learned about later when you play the game more.

You are able to learn something known as, "Orders" which can be given out only by the Tank Commander and they are really simple to understand. You will learn Orders over time such as, "Attack Boost", "Defense Boost", "All Units Defend", etc. and if you wish to use this on one unit, it will cost 1CP, if you wish to use an All Units order, it usually takes 2 or 3 (I can't remember off-hand).

I won't go too much into those though. I just wanted to mention them because I thought they were pretty cool. Now onto the exp and gold system!

The exp is laid out pretty simple in this game. The faster you complete a mission and the higher the grade is, the more exp and gold you will receive. The ranks go from D, C, B, to A (there might be a F rank, but I don't know. I've never got that before, lol).

Any time you get exp in the game, you can return back to something known as the, "Training Grounds" and decide on how much exp you wish to distribute between each unit. So, any time a Scout levels up, every Scout levels up. Any time a Shocktrooper levels up, every Shocktrooper levels up. So forth and so on.

Don't worry though. They won't be Scouts and Shocktroopers forever. I won't tell you when it happens, but after a while, they change class types and get extra weapons :)

As for your money..you visit something known as the, "R&D Factory" and can buy new Rifles, Machine Guns, Anti-Tank Lances, Sniper Rifles, Grenades, uniforms with better defense and anti-blast suits for better defense as well (uniform = every unit except Lancer and suit = Lancer). Later on in the game, you can make cusomizations to your weaponry (you can add special effects to your rifles, add firepower, accuracy) and stuff like that. It doesn't let you actually customize it yourself, but you just choose what kind of adjustment you would like to buy.

Here you can also make adjustments to your tank. You can buy customizations for it (there's a grid which allows you to put what you want on it, but it doesn't change anything cosmetic-wise) as well as extra plating, better treads, so forth and so on.

Sound: 9/10
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Definitely some of the best music I've heard in a while for a video game. It feels like you're listening to the same songs throughout the whole game, which is why I gave this a 9 instead of a 10, but those songs are so good and played at just the right times, you really won't mind too much, if at all. The sound effects in general were done really well, so I don't have any complaints there.

You can tell when you get a headshot since it makes a different sound effect as opposed to a body shot. You can also select between Japanese and English voices, which was a wonderful feature for them to add. When I played the demo for this game, I was sold on the gameplay, but the English voices made my ears bleed, lol.

With a cast as large as this, it was nice to know I could just choose to have everything in the original language with English subtitles.

Replay Value: 8/10
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I really don't find too much of a reason to play through the game again, except for the New Game+ feature. There are some things you can only get by playing through it more than once, but Valkyria Chronicles allows you to go through any scene you've already been through or any battle you have already finished, so aside from playing through it again for the small extras, there's not much of a reason for me to do such a thing.

Now that is not to say you wouldn't enjoy it a second time through, but I guess it's just up to the player, really. We are supposed to be getting some DLC for Valkyria Chronicles in January which adds a new skirmish, so that will be nice. Japan has two skirmishes available for download (at a small price) along with a new difficulty known as, "Hard EX", so that will definitely add to the replay value once we get those, I think.

All-in-all though, I believe this game does have tons of replay value potential though, simply because of the roster. You can go through the game with so many different combinations of units and characters, and set personal challenges for yourself.

Overall Score: 9/10
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I really just can't express enough about this game in this review. I loved everything about it. I remember watching the trailer back in '07 and saying to myself, "I definitely want to play that".

After making my purchase, it exceeded my expectations and quickly soared to being up on my top 3 favorite titles for the Playstation 3 which are out at the moment. I would highly suggest buying this if you are a RPG fan, you like anime, or you just love strategy games which have a huge roster, giving you tons of flexibility with how you wish to play the game. I can honestly say, this game has really shown me that SEGA can in fact make fantastic games when they pour their heart into it.

You can really just see how much effort they put into making this title. Everything is just top-notch. If you won't be amazed by the graphics, it will be the music. If it isn't the music, it will be the characters. If not the characters, it will be the gameplay.

For me, it was all of the above. It is definitely worth every penny and it should last you anywhere between 30-40 hours on your first playthrough. So, if you haven't already considered buying it, maybe you should put this on your list of things to get for Christmas!

Wild Arms Alter Code F Review

2008-11-09T04:26:00.004-06:00

All I can say is...IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME! I've been meaning to put this up for a couple of months now, but Soul Calibur IV has been eating away all my time. Well, before I decide to procrastinate any further with this, let's get started!!

Graphics: 7.5/10
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I'm kind of in between 7 and 8 on this one, so I give it a 7.5. Seeing as this is a remake of the original Wild Arms, I would definitely say this is a step up from the graphics the original had. The cutscenes are done rather well, Filgaia got a graphics overhaul as well, along with character portraits for the status menu and the battle graphics look quite nice also. The animation used for the intro was also quite good.

The only real complaints I have with the graphics are that sometimes it will glitch when you are walking around Filgaia at times. I kid you not, I have honestly ran towards the entrance of a dungeon before and the moutain where the entrance was located at just vanished off the map and I was stuck running on a big black block for a few seconds until I got into a random encounter, then after the fight, the map reconstructed itself and I was right back in front of the entrance.

Sometimes as you are flying around, you'll see mountains vanish and turn into the ocean or black blocks. It doesn't happen too terribly often, but it does make you wonder. My other complaint is..for a PS2 title, this game doesn't really have any excuse as to why they couldn't make the characters' mouths move properly when speaking. Their mouths would either be open or closed the whole time.

This was a little disappointing, since that is what I would expect of a PS1 title, not 2. Other than that, I was quite pleased overall with the graphics since I remember how the original looked. Definitely a nice upgrade in the remake.

Story: 6/10
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Once again (actually..this is where it all started, lol) we save Filgaia from the evil people who wish to kill all humans to create a new world. If you've played most Japanese RPGs, then you'll already see where the story is going pretty early on. The only thing which makes this story stand out is our protagonist who carries a legendary weapon known as the ARM.

However, if you've played any Wild Arms titles, then you know there can't be a protagonist without the ARM being involved. So, yeah..this is pretty much just another cliche, "We must save the world!" storyline.

Characters: 7/10
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The cast is quite small. You go through most of the game with the same three characters, actually. This is kind of rare with RPGs, but through some roundabout methods you CAN get more than three much much later on. Even then though, the cast remains quite small overall.

Personally, I like the protagonist for multiple reasons. For those of you that understand his background, you'll know why. You grow to like him over time as well because you find out his past and you really begin to see him grow as a human (I say that word lightly, lol). The support cast is pretty good though.

Well, actually..I didn't really care for the Princess too much. She was too much of a traditional cookie-cutter style "violence doesn't solve anything!" type of character that kills anyway. She wanted peace which was understandable, but still..I didn't really like her attitude. She was a bit naive about a lot of things and also too emotional for my taste.

All you need to really know about the characters is that you have a great protagonist, which is rare in today's RPGs. This is one reason you can tell it's a remake of an older RPG and not an original title, lol. The main is likeable!

Gameplay: 9/10
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Certainly not perfect, but damn near close. This is one of the more enjoyable battle systems I've played with. Honestly, there's not much too it.

On the outside, it's just your everyday turn-based RPG. Once you get the extra stuff down though, it feels like something totally different. All of your characters get skills they can use throughout the fight.

However, for the main, his skills don't take MP. He will never have MP. His skills use ammo, which is cool. He gets some skills which take one bullet or even all of his bullets.

There's also a bar known as your "Force Gauge" (I believe that's what it's called anyway..) which will build up during the battle. It will build when you attack, defend, use items, or skills. When you reach 25%, you can perform something which helps your skills increase in power (I forget the name of this).

When you first play the game, this will seem like a very basic battle system, but as you progress and get items to equip which start you off with FP (Force Points) at the beginning of a battle, have a chance to counterattack, and whatnot..you'll realize there is much more to the system instead of just selecting attack, guard, or skills.

Sound: 10/10
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What can I say? The sound in this game is flawless. All of the sound effects, the music, everything. It just fits the game so well..I have absolutely no complaints at all.

Wild Arms has always had a Western feel to it, despite being made in Japan. All of the music in the game, when you enter towns, really capture the moment and make you feel as if you just stepped into the Wild Wild West. Of course, there are cities in the game which do not have Western music playing, but that's because they are cities, so the game treats them as such, lol.

When you step into a city, you'll hear a different kind of music. Something which sound elegant and prestigeous. They certainly wanted you to feel the difference when stepping out of a saloon and into a castle.

The battle music is also very fitting. The world map theme is also enjoyable. As I said before, I honestly have no complaints with the sound in this game. This is yet another trait which reminds you this is a remake of an older game.

I can name quite a few RPGs which had memorable themes, great music, and sound effects overall. Today? Not so much. This game can definitely be used as an example for companies to think of how to put the player in the role of the protagonist and actually make him or her feel as though she is in the game.

A very important aspect of the game, I would say. You must know how to set the mood during certain situations and capture the atmosphere with the right tone. If not, well..it certainly wouldn't be a game you would remember very well in that department.

Replay Value: 7/10
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Not much. I'll put it that way. There is a New Game + mode, but..it's not what you think. See, you collect these "New Game EX File" keys all throughout the game, but they are just to be viewed. For example, let's say...you find "New Game EX File key 13".

Well..before you load your game, there are three options at the top, "Load Game", "New Game", and "New Game EX". If you load your current data under, "New Game EX", a black screen will pop up with a bunch of question marks and one of them will say, "New Game EX File key 13". At the top left of the screen, it will tell you what the key is for.

For the sake of simplicity, we'll say the 13th key allows you to view 5 illustrations. Now would you rather have something like that or...would you like an actual New Game + mode and be able to go through the game again with the stats, skills, etc. that you had when you beat the game? I honestly found a key which lets me view my party's stats as they were at the end of the game, but that's all it does. That's IT.

If anything, I found that to be quite annoying. The illustrations were cool and all, but for the game to specifically tell me, "New Game EX does not create a new game carrying over your current stats. Would you like to save anyway?", ugh..I felt myself die a little bit inside. I was rather looking forward to going through again with really awesome stats and such.

Putting that aside though..the game itself would still be fun to go through twice and set up your party members a little differently than you did the first time or try to get everything in something known as the "Black Market". There's actually an EX File key there that costs max gella, lol. I'm sure that would give the game a lot of replayability.

Well, other than that though..it's certainly no Persona 3, so twice, maaaaybe three times, but anything past that and you're just crazy.

Overall Score: 7/10
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It's a little lacking in the graphics department for a PS2 title and the story isn't that great which is why I give this overall, a 7 out of 10. Everything else in the game seems fine and/or enjoyable, but I can't really overlook the fact that they didn't improve the graphics just a bit more and give us moving mouths. The story couldn't really be fixed though, since this is a remake of the original, so that couldn't be helped.

Overall though, I can confidently say this is worth every penny. If you want to take a trip down Memory Lane and see how older RPGs used to be, I would definitely recommend picking up this remake of a wonderful classic that will hold a spot in every RPG fanatic's heart. I would also like to point out that the difficulty can be a bit harder than usual for the casual gamer.

You see, in this game..you never buy equipment or healing/revival items. You have to find or steal healing/revival items. I have heard quite a few people turned away from Wild Arms because of this, but I can assure you..the game is just as fun as any current RPG which does provide all of this in shops.

Trust me, if you get the hang of the battle system and use it to your advantage, you won't ever have to worry about seeing that dreadful gameover screen. Although! I will say this. The game isn't as relentless as it sounds.

Even though you cannot buy healing/revival items, you can collect this item known as a, "Gimel Coin" which allows you to save at any given time (of course, there are some very rare extreme circumstances where this doesn't apply, but there should be a save close by, so no worries) and if you don't use them for this purpose, then you can use them as continues for a fight you're having trouble with.

If your party goes into the battle with low HP because you wasn't expecting a boss fight or simply because you didn't have any healing items or whatever reason and you get game over, if you use a Gimel Coin, you will restart the battle with full HP and MP instead of just continuing with what you originally had.

So, don't allow the harsh system to turn you away from this wonderful classic. It's not as bad as it sounds as long as you know what you're doing and don't waste items. With that being said, I would like to thank you for reading this review and if you have any comments to share about how you felt towards the game or just questions about the game in general, feel free to leave feedback.

It's about damn time I got to posting this *sigh*

More Hatsune

2008-10-15T01:33:00.002-05:00

I've added some more songs to the Hatsune Miku playlist. You'll have to excuse some of the track titles. They were in Japanese, so they were either titled, "Track X" or "Untitled". There are also some tracks that got to keep their original names and show up as weird symbols, so..that will explain the odd looking songs on the playlist.

Anyway, I spent a while just converting most of these songs from .ogg format to .mp3, so I hope you enjoy them if you do decide to take a listen to the new ones added. I'm a little tired at the moment, so I'm going to get some rest now.

Enjoy.

Sorry for the absence

2008-10-14T12:56:00.003-05:00

My modem was turned off around the 8th or so I believe, since I was getting my service changed from DSL to Cable, so I wasn't able to access my blog or..well..ANYTHING...until today! Anyway, just giving an update on what to expect in the future:

Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth review

Wild Arms: Alter Code F review

Soul Calibur IV review

More Hatsune Miku music added to the playlist

An Ys playlist will be formed some point in the next week I'm hoping

Anyway, keep checking back for updates. I'm trying to maintain a better schedule for updating the blog.

Small update

2008-10-02T15:18:00.003-05:00

I know I haven't been posting often as of recently, but you can blame Soul Calibur IV for that one. I got the game a couple of weeks ago and I've been playing it like crazy, lol. I meant to have my review up of Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth by now, but I'll get around to it later. I hate postponing things.

It usually means I won't get around to it for a few weeks >.<

Anyway, I might be trying something involving my gaming soon, so..you'll know whether or not I'm going through with this plan a little later. Let's see..what else...oh. Yeah, I don't have a new banner idea, so you'll just have to deal with one of a game I don't play anymore :P

Also, if you want to add me on PSN for some SCIV, my ID is:

Kikumaru-chan

I'd also like to thank everyone for helping me reach over 1,000 hits. I wish I had some sort of awesome surprise, but unfortunately..you'll just have to settle with a thank you, lol. Keep checking back later though for updates. I'll try to get around to posting something :)

Sota Fujimori's album "Synthesized"

2008-09-12T02:40:00.002-05:00

Just thought I'd share the wealth! It was hard as hell to even get this album, so I'm sure this link will be helpful for a few people who are looking for it and would especially like to be able to download it directly.

So, if you wish to download this rather epic album from Sota Fujimori, click below and enjoy!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GYQ59XTW

livetune feat. Hatsune Miku Re:package album

2008-09-10T17:13:00.002-05:00

Alright, well..I haven't finished making the WHOLE playlist, but I have put up Hatsune Miku's newest album for now, so I hope you all enjoy it :)

I'll try adding more songs when I have some free time later.

Hatsune Miku playlist coming soon!

2008-09-06T01:25:00.002-05:00

I'll be working on a playlist for Hatsune Miku, over the weekend, to put up on the blog and replace the MGS4 playlist.

Just thought I'd give an update about that :P

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Review

2008-09-04T16:41:00.004-05:00

It's the moment you've all been waiting for! The review for MGS4! I would have had this up a few months ago, but I've been so busy as of lately, I haven't had the time for it really. Well, today..I decided it was finally time to put it up. So, here we go!

Graphics: 10/10
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I have yet to see a more magnificent looking game for the Playstation 3! Sometimes companies will try to touch up trailers to make the game look better than it actually is so you will go out and buy it, but there was none of that here. It was a typical case of, "WYSIWYG" (What You See Is What You Get for the computer illiterate :P). Every little texture and detail of the environments and people in the game were top notch. I couldn't have possibly hoped for anything better than what I got. The game itself looks phenomenal and the cutscenes are breathtaking. This is the only game I can think of which has a 25 minute cutscene which kept me on the edge of my seat EVERY second of it. I couldn't ask for anything more in this department.

Story: 10/10
-------------

The Metal Gear series has been around for 20 years and to think..even to this day...the story would still be mindblowing. The story was so fantastic. I knew I was in for quite a ride, but to think that every little detail would be told and no page would be left unturned in the last chapter of Snake's story...well, let's just say..it was a bit easier to take in when someone tells you rather than experiencing it. When Kojima said, "We will leave no loose ends" during the production of MGS4, even knowing how awesome Kojima is..I was still a bit skeptical. I honestly thought there could be a contradiction made or something would go untouched...afraid that the story would be rushed to finish. However..this was NOT the case! Everything went really smoothly and there was material brough from the older installments into the story, tying everything together..leaving me VERY satisfied with the ending I got, knowing that everything had been resolved just as Kojima said it would be.

Characters: 9/10
-----------------

Ya can't like them all. My main focus was on Snake and I liked the support cast (i.e. Otacon), but there were just a couple of characters I didn't really care for. It's not that they didn't play a good role or anything like that, but eh...well..I'd rather not go into it too much, but let's just say..I'm not too big into loli characters, lol.

Gameplay: 9/10
-----------------

It was about as fluid as I had hoped it would be and THEN some. The only real complaints I have in this department (which is very minor..or I would have lowered it to an 8 or so) would be that you can't lean your back against the wall anymore AND there's a rather annoying part in the third act, so I'm going to knock it down to a 9 in this category. Other than that, the game runs VERY smooth. The controls are great, the camera angles are no longer an issue, the way you can blend in with the environment through Octocamo makes everything even more interesting. Outside of the two issues mentioned above, I really have no complaints at all with the gameplay. It's practically flawless.

Sound: 10/10
--------------

Can we say, EPIC?! This has to be some of the best sound quality I have heard in ANY game to date. To think..the music ALONE would have been enough to blow me away, but the sound effects in general are so clear, it makes everything seem sooooooo much better than the older installments. Every character's voice sounds crystal clear, all of the sound effects (from the swishing of grass to reloading an M14) sound top notch. After hearing they devoted 11 gigs to just the sound quality..needless to say, when I played the game..it was clear how much they devoted to the sound quality of this game.

Replay Value: 9/10
--------------------

To me, Metal Gear has never really had too much replay value. I mean, there are only so many ways you can distract guards to kill them. There are also only so many ways you can kill guards, period. However, with MGS4...there can be tons of replay value. You can unlock different weapons, items, camo, etc. when going through the game different times, meeting different requirements. Also, there are extras you can download from the main menu, which include iPod songs and Octocamo patterns. There's usually a new one up every Thursday to download.

All-in-all, the game certainly deserves more than one playthrough. Also, seeing as Metal Gear Online comes with MGS4, we could say that has tons of replay value, being that it's an online shooter.

Overall Score: 9/10
--------------------

As much as I'd love to give this a 10, I don't think any game is perfect. However..this game is as close to perfect as I have ever experienced so far. So many aspects of this game could be considered flawless and ahead of its time. I believe we can all thank Hideo Kojima once again for making such a brilliant game that will open the eyes of developers for the Playstation 3 and encourage them to try and make something even greater. With the release of MGS4, we have seen a little bit of what the PS3 is capable of. If this is only a fraction of it's power, I would like to see what awaits us in the future with gaming.

That being said, I believe MGS4 is one of the most memorable titles to date and could very easily have a chance at winning the, "Game of the Year" award. For those of you not interested in the Metal Gear series, it may not be for you since it does focus on things which have happened in past Metal Gear titles and you may be lost in the story, but..even if you're not a Metal Gear fan, it would still be a rather fun game to play. You can even play in FPS mode if you wish.

Although, to be fair..I wouldn't encourage the non Metal Gear enthusiasts to pick this one up, cause they wouldn't be able to appreciate it as much, since they wouldn't know the story behind our protagonist. Anyway, if you haven't played MGS4 yet, I would highly suggest buying this. You would not be satisfied on just a rental of a masterpiece such as this. That being said...this is my review for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, I hope you all enjoyed it.

New post GET!!

2008-08-26T02:07:00.004-05:00

Finally! I have come to post something! Alright, so let me give you guys a rundown of what has happened. For starters:

1. I came. I saw. I conquered. (not in any particular order of course :P). Metal Gear Solid 4 blew me the fuck away! That's right. I said the "f" word! It was that epic. I'll have a review up later!

2. More One Piece, Golgo 13, and Legend of the Galactic Heroes. ALWAYS awesome.

3. Been pretty much hooked on Metal Gear Online (which comes with MGS4). So that's one of the many reasons I haven't posted here much.

4. Also got to test out Persona 4. VERY nice game. I can't wait for the stateside release (which is scheduled for 12/9/08)

5. I finally got off my ass and beat Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth for PSP, so I'll have a review of that up later as well.

6. I resubscribed to an online game I used to play a lot a few months back (Phantasy Star Universe).

7. I've also been DJing at this forum I visit (www.idforums.net). I go on air every Friday at 9:00 P.M. - 11:00 P.M. PST. There's no specific genre I play, but I do stay away from Country and Rap, lol :P (by the way, I'm under the DJ name, "DJ Eiji")

8. Also, I made a Youtube account recently to show off some gaming. I'll be glad when I get the cables and such to run the video through my computer for better quality though. For now, it's just with a digital camera. Anyway, check it out at: www.youtube.com/tetsuyahikari

9. Food, breathing, sleep, other human bodily necessities, etc.

So there ya have it. I'm still alive, just been doing a lot of this and that lately. I'm also thinking about making a new playlist for the blog and such. Well, when I get the time. I'm going to swap out the MGS4 playlist with a Hatsune Miku playlist. Why? Because she's awesome :3

Anyway, enough rambling. Back to gaming!

Hisashiburi desu ne?

2008-08-05T18:10:00.003-05:00

Yes, as you can see..I haven't posted in a while. I've been caught up with a lot of gaming in the past month and whatnot. I'm going to try to post updates later at some point, but right now there is absolutely too much to catch up on overnight. I'll take a day out of the week at some point and update the blog with what has been happening recently and such.

Till then...

Yet another update

2008-06-26T20:13:00.004-05:00

Alright, so..I've changed the layout around a little bit and have replaced the banner at the top with a different theme. I'm currently playing a fighting game known as, "Sengoku Basara X (pronounced "Cross")" and have decided to put a banner of it up for now. I'll go into details about the game later.

I've got a few things I need to post about and the playlist needs to be rotated to something different, but all of these things I need to do will have to wait. I'm going to take a break, then come back to make new posts about all of that stuff a little later.

Update

2008-06-24T02:08:00.002-05:00

As you may have noticed, there hasn't been any changes to the blog layout as of recently, nor a new post in a while. Well, that's simply because of a few reasons really:

A. My pre-ordered copy of MGS4 didn't arrive on time, so I got upset at EB Games and didn't really feel like doing anything with my blog for the time being

B. MGS4 finally arrived, so I've been busy playing that a lot

C. The anime I usually post about, well..a new episode hasn't come out until recently.

D. I've been lazy

There will be some changes made to the layout soon though. As far as, taking down the banner at the top, removing the MGS4 timer on the right, changing the color of the background, plus the text, etc.

Wild Arms 5 Review

2008-06-11T15:30:00.006-05:00

After spending close to 50 hours traveling around the world of Filgaia once more in the Wild Wild West setting of the fifth installment to the RPG series known as, "Wild Arms", I have decided to post a review about the game, since I do believe it is deserving of one. So, without further ado...

Graphics: 8/10
---------------

The graphics for Wild Arms 5 are gorgeous in comparison to other installments I believe. I have played all of the installments so far, all the way from 1 to the remake of 1, Alter Code F and I have to say..the graphics shown in Wild Arms 5 are absolutely great. Now, to be fair..the graphics on a whole may not be that intriguing for those looking for top-notch pixels, but for the Wild Arms series, these really shine. All of the characters had great detail put in them, all of the movements were really fluid when attacking, the cutscenes look nice as well, and the world as a whole looks really great, so I am proud to say this installment really is eye candy in this category and if you have played the others, you will be able to appreciate them as much as myself.

Story: 4/10
------------

I'll be honest. The story wasn't all that compelling. It's a very generic written story of, "This man is trying to erase humanity to create a new world, you must defeat his subordinates, then defeat the man himself in order to stop him". I wasn't too overly excited about the story, since we have seen this done plenty of times before. I wouldn't mind so much if it was executed properly, but really..you're pretty much just blindly saving the world, just because. A lot of things are rather pretty vague, as in, "Oh no! He's going to do THAT! We have to stop him!!". Once again, I wasn't too thrilled about the story in general, so I give it a 4 out of 10.

Characters: 8/10
-----------------

I personally thought the cast for Wild Arms 5 was rather interesting and every character had something you could like about them. I believe there's someone for just about anybody in this cast, so you're sure to find a character you like among the six you play as. The main hero, Dean is your typical, "I'll never give up!" kind of guy. You'll hear that line a good 20 times or so through the whole game. In Wild Arms, the hero is always a country bumpkin and in this installment, that has not changed. Dean has the personality of a pretty dense guy, so he doesn't know a whole lot and just goes based on feelings. He's pretty simple, really. You leave town in the beginning with your childhood friend Rebecca, who is always watching over Dean and is a little smarter than he is, then your adventure begins as you find other members to join your party, all the way from a rough looking guy who is pretty tough to a loli (which is apparently needed in ANY roleplaying game). So, as I stated before, the whole cast of six is pretty interesting in their own way and I think there's someone for everybody.

Gameplay: 9/10
-----------------

This game uses something known as the "Hex system" which places a bunch of hexagons on the field during battle. You can place all three characters in the same hexagon or spread them about. If you have all of your characters in the same hex, then when an enemy attacks, all of you will take damage, however..this works for you as well. If two or three enemies are in the same hex, then when you attack, you will hurt them all, so depending on how you play your cards, you can take advantage of the system. There are also elements placed on random hexagons. These hexagons are known as, "Ley Points". If you have a skill known as, "Hi-Blast", "Crush" or "Heavy Crush" and you are standing on one of these hexagons, your neutral based attack will then turn into an elemental attack, based on the hex you are standing on. There are also status effects (such as "Def up" or "Atk up") you can place on the hex which will affect all party members that are standing in the hex. You can also perform team attacks if certain party members are placed in the same hex together. You have a gauge which builds in the middle of battle known as, "Force level" and the higher it gets, the better it is for your party, because you can then use say, 50% of the gauge to perform a team attack or 75% for a character to use a skill known as "Intrude" and get two consecutive turns. The hex system was first introduced in Wild Arms 4. I honestly thought it was awkward and didn't like it that much till towards the end of Wild Arms 4, but when I picked up Wild Arms 5, it felt natural and I just came to enjoy it more and more as I progressed further. I believe the hex system is an interesting concept and thoroughly enjoyed this title due to this battle system.

Sound: 8/10
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The music for Wild Arms 5 resembles its predecessors by sticking to the Wild Wild West atmosphere for most of the world. For the places that don't have a Western sound to them, I think they did a fine job with the music for those areas as well. The battle themes were great and I thoroughly enjoy the fact that they left the Japanese vocal songs in the Stateside release. I was surprised at that, but I'm really glad they kept them. If you've played any of the other installments for Wild Arms, that's the kind of music you can expect to hear in this installment as well. As they say, "If it's not broke, don't fix it". As for the dubbing..well, it was alright for the most part, but there were some instances I felt like ripping my hair out. However, I won't go too much into the dubbing. I will say though, if you feel inclined to do so, you can go into the options and adjust every character's voice to a certain level, going from 0 (silent) to 10, I believe. It's like setting priorities for voices. I had Dean's voice set at a 3, since he could get annoying at times. For the character's you do like, you can keep their voices up..OR...if you just don't like ANY of the dubbing, you can just turn all of the voices off. So, seeing as you are given that freedom, I can't really complain about the dubbing too much.

Replay Value: 7/10
--------------------

Wild Arms 5 is a rather big game. It took me nearly 50 hours to beat and that was without me completing everything in the game. There a few sidequests to do and some of them are quite time consuming (like opening every treasure chest in the world). Also, you have something known as an EX File you can start after you beat the game which allows you to carry over all of your equipment, money, battle items and key items. However, your levels don't carry over, nor do your team attacks, so you have to re-learn those. Not really a pain, but kind of silly to do over again, regardless. So, after beating the game, if you opened all of the chests in the world your first playthrough, that doesn't matter. You will have to re-open all of them once more on your EX File, if you want to complete everything in the game. I'd say this game has a good 120 hours worth in it, beating it once, then clearing an EX File with everything complete.

Overall Score: 7/10
---------------------

The 4 really dragged this down. If it wasn't for that, I would rate it an 8 out of 10. When playing an RPG, people are generally dragged in by the story, so for a lot of gamers, I can see that being the decisive moment for picking this title up or not. If you're looking for something story driven, I wouldn't recommend picking this title up. I enjoyed all of the features of the game, so I was able to overlook such a thing, but overall..if you're a fan of Wild Arms, I'd say this is worth a buy, but if you're just a fan of RPGs in general, just give it a rent. If you think the game has enough potential to keep you hooked, despite lacking a decent story, then you can consider buying it. Other than that, I enjoyed this title and would certainly recommend this to any Wild Arms fan. Dust off that old ARM and get ready for yet another great adventure through the world of Filgaia.

New playlist for a week!

2008-06-05T00:10:00.003-05:00

Time for the secret to be told! The secret playlist that is being put up for a week is the Metal Gear Solid 4 OST. It will be to celebrate the release of such an epic game! I hope all of those that listen to it enjoy the music as much as I did. The OST for this game is simply fantastic.

Enjoy!

Secret playlist

2008-06-01T23:18:00.002-05:00

Secret playlist will be put up in a few days...

stay tuned

Persona 3 FES Review

2008-05-30T13:31:00.003-05:00

This was rated as one of the best RPGs of 2007 and for a good cause at that. Persona 3 FES grants you 30 to 40 hours of additional gameplay, compared to the original installment. This time around, you get to date Aigis, go to the arcade to increase stats, date Elizabeth, among lots of other things, plus you get a new episode this time known as, "The Answer" which takes place after the main story. Now then, on with the review!

Graphics: 9/10
----------------

The graphics used in this game are what I am generally attracted towards. That being an anime-style. I loved all of the colors that were used for the characters, environments, you name it, I really liked the graphics for this title. The colors were a bit bright at times, yes, but they were still easy on the eyes. I really enjoyed them.

Story: 7/10
------------

How many times can we save the world and it not get old? Yes, this is yet ANOTHER Japanese RPG which follows a plot for you to save the world, however..I have given it a little bit above average for a rating because of the spin they add to it. They made it just interesting enough to not make me groan, wondering where I had seen this script before and give me deja vu. So, I was actually satisfied with the story, despite it being one that has been re-used so many times.

Characters: 9/10
------------------

What can I say? We have a really great unique cast for Persona 3 FES. All of the characters you encounter which play an important role in your party are all different in some way, which is quite hard to do, mind you. However..Atlus makes it seem so incredibly easy in Persona 3 FES. Every character has their own personality and ways of acting in certain situations, which makes you decide who you like better than the other. You won't agree with some attitudes towards situations, but it is the variety of personality among the party members which gives you such a choice. All of the characters also get a lot of backstory (especially in FES), so even your favorite character doesn't have to be left out of the picture. I was really pleased with the character selection for this RPG and the development we all went through in the story as I progressed forward.

Gameplay: 7/10
------------------
Alright, now..I'm not going to lie. It IS a pain at times, this battle system, that is. Sometimes this game will make you want to rip your hair out after making two hours worth of progress and your main character dies. If the main character dies, you get a game over, simple as that. Also, you can only control yourself. The other party members are controlled by the AI. Now, you can set tactics for other party members on how you want them to act (i.e. Conserve SP), but other than that..they act on their own. I got a bit upset at times because of my main dying, wondering why my other party members couldn't bring me back to life, but when they die, I can bring them back. It can be a bit frustrating, but honestly..if you have the correct Personas, then you don't have to worry about dying too often. If you hit the enemy's weak point, then you get an extra turn, then..if you knock all enemies down by hitting their weak points, you can perform something known as an "All Out Attack!" which allows all of the party members to rush in and hit the enemies that are down, combining their power for one strong strike.

Sound: 9/10
-------------

I loved the music for this installment and honestly..the dubbing was great. I was surprised to hear the dubbing was above "withstanding" and I didn't mind hearing it at all. I think Atlus did a great job finding voices to match the characters. As for the actual sounds, they were top notch as well. I didn't have any problem hearing any of the sound effects and they were rather clear. As for the music..I personally loved the music. I think the music was great. You get a good variety of songs depending on what area you travel to or where you are at in the timeline, but other than that, I thoroughly enjoy the music and wouldn't ask for a different soundtrack at all.

Replay Value: 8/10
--------------------

This is one of the very FEW RPGs I see having lots of replay value. That's simply because you have so many choices you can make in the game and you have so many different outcomes with particular scenarios. Not to mention, seeing as you can date in this game, I'm sure you're not going to date every girl on your first playthrough, so you can play the game again and again to see new scenes that you hadn't seen before. I know a few people that have went about 10 to 12 times through this game and are just NOW getting burned out on it. That being said, this game is certainly a keeper and you shouldn't sell it after playing through the story once.

Overall Score: 8/10
--------------------

This is one of the best RPGs I have had the honor of playing in a very long time. I was pleased with most of the game, except for the extra episode, "The Answer". "The Answer" takes place in a different setting and it is simply a grindfest. Some say it is worth it to go through "The Answer", but I couldn't get through it, honestly. It was practically 30 hours of grinding. I was accustomed to the freedom I had in the main story, "The Journey", so when I got to this and that was all taken away from me and all I could do was fight, it proved to be rather bland and just another RPG to me. Overall though, I certainly believe this is worth $30, especially with all of the new extras. Even if you don't go through the extra episode like me, you will find yourself satisfied with the main story itself and honestly..you may even tell yourself the main story's ending is how the game ends. It's not as if it ends in an awkward manner where you would HAVE to play through the extra episode, but..enough of that.

I believe Persona 3 FES is worth every penny of that $30 and should you find a copy, pick it up. I'm sure you won't regret it if you are an RPG fan, fan of anime-styled video games, or love expansive titles. There is so much to do in this game, it would be a waste to not at least try it. Yet another reason why PS2 owners can be proud. Thanks to titles such as these, the Playstation 2 isn't dead just yet. So, what are you waiting for? Get your copy today!

Golgo 13 Episodes 5 & 6

2008-05-26T01:40:00.007-05:00

I haven't made an anime post in a while, despite watching some. I've been a bit lazy as of recently, but last night I watched episodes 5 and 6 of Golgo 13 and wow. They were pretty good, like always. In episode 5, Golgo 13 is hired by the president of a company to kill the vice-president, so he can prevent him from taking over the company. Well..the vice-president had actually already hired a sniper to take out the president, so Golgo 13's mission was to take out the vice-president at about the same time as the president was shot, so it made it seem like the sniper killed both.

Well, come the day of the assassination, the sniper takes a spot which is perfect for sniping his target right as he gets out of the jet on the runway. However..little did he know, Golgo 13 had been doing some research on the sniper's habits for shooting and whatnot, so he was well prepared. Well, after the president is rolled out of the jet by the vice-president, the sniper gets ready to take his shot, but just before he can, Golgo 13 shoots the sniper's dominant hand, then shoots the vice-president right in the forehead immediately after, which was simply amazing. So, a couple of the guards that was beside the president and vice-president look in the general direction of where the only possible place the shot could've come from and the sniper was left there with his rifle on the ground beside him, his hand bleeding with Golgo 13 just walking away from a different position, successful once more.

I thought episode 5 was great, but episode 6 I loved even more. Everything went so well. Alright, well..in the beginning, the police are inspecting cars passing through, because the presidential nomination was going to be held later that day. Well, an officer tells Golgo 13, "If you have handgun, please give it to us. We will return it to you later", then Golgo 13 replies back with, "I don't have one", so a few officers search his car, then find a case in the backseat and pop it open, then you see a gun, so naturally, they question him and he says, "It's a toy", so they inspect it and sure enough, it was made out of plastic, but they confiscate it anyway, then he has to go to the police headquarters later to pick it back up.

After leaving HQ, a couple of guys follow him to a carnival where he is seen shooting a rifle, hitting multiple wooden targets. One of the officers that was following him had went to Golgo 13's car and stole some sunglasses and a lighter while Golgo 13 was distracted. He returned to his car shortly after only to find out what happened, then reported it to a police officer, but told him a pair of sunglasses, lighter, and a toy had been stolen, so this confused the officers that had been following him. Afterwards, he prepares for the convention and walks into the building while holding some balloons, and the guys pat him down, check him for any weapons, then use the metal detector, but nothing is detected. Well, shortly thereafter..he sneaks behind the scoreboard at the stadium (where the convention was being held), then unties one of the balloons, letting air out of it, then pulls out the plastic handgun! That was SO insane! I totally didn't expect it! Afterwards, he opens his mouth, then pulls a bullet out from between his teeth, then puts it into the chamber.

He slowly pops a window open, then after the winner is announced, he shoots the guy in the head next to him while confetti starts to fly and loud "pop" sounds are heard, he shoots during all of that. All of the exits are sealed, then they finally find Golgo 13 on the field a few minutes later, then bring him back to HQ to question him. While questioning him, you think Golgo 13 is in a mess, because one of the other guys comes in and says they found gunpowder residue on Golgo 13's jacket, so Golgo 13 asks for a lawyer. Shortly thereafter, one comes inside. However..during the interrogation, they are trying to search for the gun, but can't find a trace of it at all. The lawyer begins talking to the guys about it and says that it isn't really fair, accusing him of such a thing, and explain that he was checked before he entered the facility, he wasn't carrying a weapon on him then.

The lawyer also brings up the fact that Golgo 13's jacket smelled like gunpowder and explained the reason for that as well. It was because he was at the carnival prior to the convention. One of the officers that had been following him earlier didn't report this, because he thought it was a small detail. Secondly, the lawyer states that the toy gun was stolen from him to begin with, so how could he kill anybody? He told them to check their records and they would see, it was stolen along with a pair of sunglasses and a lighter. Well..one of the guys that had been following him earlier said, "Th..that's impossible! That has to be a lie! I only took the sunglasses and lighter!", so the lawyer smirks and says, "Oh? So we have something else we can use in court as well then", so eventually..the Chief looks to the officers and shakes his head, saying, "There's no way we can convince a judge with this...".

So, with that said..the lawyer walks past the officer that was performing the interrogation and says, "You'll never find the gun. What? Do you think it may have went into the sky or something?", then the officer finally realizes..all Golgo 13 had to do was tie the toy gun to the balloons he was carrying, then let it float up into the sky and nobody would ever find it that way. However, he can't prove that Golgo 13 did anything, so Golgo 13 was let go with yet..another impressive escape.

Bought an epic game recently

2008-05-24T14:17:00.002-05:00

That is all.

Video game playlist is go!

2008-05-22T00:08:00.002-05:00

The playlist for music from video games will be up starting today and will go down Saturday morning. As you can see, some of the music is written in gibberish and I'm tired of renaming them, since it would be the fourth time now...

I may edit this post later with the actual track names, but for now..just know that the ones which are written like that are tracks from Final Fantasy IV and VIII.

Other than that...enjoy!

Added a security guard to the site :3

2008-05-18T18:46:00.003-05:00

Okay, maybe not a security guard, but a fun little flash of Nagato has been added to the side to keep an eye on visitors. To fight against hackers and the like, bwahaha. I put her directly below the Hatsune Miku clock. After the flash has loaded, move your cursor around her and she will follow it (only within the box, unfortunately).

I just thought it was interesting and wanted to add it to the site since I like the character and whatnot :P

Video game playlist complete

2008-05-16T01:55:00.004-05:00

After a few hours of working on the playlist, I finally managed to finish it. I have a composed a playlist to put up for Thursdays - Fridays which will consist of music from the following titles:

Castlevania, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest, Final Fantasy VIII, Legend of Dragoon, Legend of Zelda: A link to the past, Lunar: Silver Star Story, Metal Gear, Secret of Mana, Sengoku Basara 2, Sonic CD, Sonic R, Star Ocean: Second Story, Streets of Rage 3, Tales of Destiny, Wild Arms, Ys, Guilty Gear, Melty Blood, Virtua Fighter 5, DJ Max Portable, and DJ Max Portable 2

It will consist of music dating back to the 80's and go all the way to music from our current generation from Virtua Fighter 5 and the like. I have only constructed the playlist in Winamp so far, so I still have to upload the music and make it on playlist.com, but it should be up soon.

New playlist in the future

2008-05-15T06:21:00.003-05:00

I am currently working on a Gaming playlist which features BGM from games back on NES, MSX, Sega CD, you name it, dating to current gen. I'm not sure when I will have it finished, but it's about 60% complete at the moment. Ah, speaking of playlists..I have another one I'm going to be working on after this, but you will have to wait till June or so before finding out what it is. It's going to be a secret till then :)

As for the day I'm going to put the Gaming playlist up for, I'm not really sure. Right now, I have the current playlist going from Monday through Friday, then it's Eurobeat weekend. So, I'm assuming..I could make it take up Thursday and Friday, but I'm just not sure yet. I'll have to wait till it's actually finished first before finding out what I feel most comfortable with.

In any case, it's a little update in the future, but felt as if it was worth a post regardless.

HUGE update for MGS4!

2008-05-13T20:41:00.012-05:00

Now I know I said I wouldn't post about it again until I got my copy, but after hearing about the latest additions to the game, I couldn't pass up this opportunity to post about it. Alright, so first! For those of you that watched the Assassin's Creed April Fool's Day joke video a while back, Kojima has announced that it wasn't just a prank. Altair's (the main character of Assassin's Creed) outfit can actually be unlocked in the game, Kojima has stated. The producer of Assassin's Creed, Jade Raymond, congratulated Kojima Productions/Konami for the game's completion and release.

Now what you see here is, yes..you guessed it..an iPod. It was recently announced in this same conference that Snake will be carrying around an iPod to listen to tracks he obtains throughout the game. The only music we know of that is in the game so far is an 8-bit track from Metal Gear and a J-Pop track. I wish there was a way to import music from our PS3's hard drive to the game, but so far, the only thing we know is that we can operate it in-game to play a particular theme as background music when infiltrating the battlefield. Maybe we'll get to hear, "Snake Eater" while we're at it :)

Next, we have the Sony Ericsson W62S cellphone which is featured quite a few times throughout the game. Apparently, they have also decided to make a game for the cellphone known as, "Ganbare Snake" which is a spinoff to the title known as, "Ganbare Salaryman".

Now I'm sure you all remember the GA-KO, yes? Well, a little after a month of the release for MGS4, on July 31st, Konami plans on releasing a GA-KO alarm clock for about $30. I certainly wouldn't pay nearly $30 for an alarm clock, but for the MGS fanatic, it's a no-brainer.

Here we have an energy drink named, "Regain" which was brought to the conference and drank by Kojima, plus another, during the demo play. It's a drink to help you get back up on your feet in-game. I'm assuming it helps with stamina, given the description. I'll also be adding the commercial for this drink featuring Snake, at the bottom of the post.

And lastly, we have some t-shirts which are being released on June 12th as well, which have themes from the game. They're only about $15. I wouldn't mind having the one which Kojima was wearing during a part of the conference, the one in blue which has a cardboard box on the guy's head, lol.

There are so many different products in this game, I'm baffled as to how Kojima managed to get all of this in there and advertise so much, but..this is a very highly anticipated title and judging from all of this..he clearly understands that. I really wanted to play the game before, but now..after seeing even MORE features, I'm even more anxious about it. I have a feeling..it's going to be a loooooooooooooong month, lol.

All credit for the pictures go to their rightful owners.

Here is a TV Spot commercial for the energy drink, "Regain" featuring Snake:

As a special bonus, I have also decided to include the newest trailer for MGS4 in a theatrical format which was shown at the latest conference. All of the voices are in English (so yes, that means you'll get to hear some of David Hayter :) ) and it contains new scenes which have not been featured in the other trailers, mainly cutscenes. It doesn't spoil the story for you, but they are new clips, so if you don't wish to watch it and think it may spoil you anyway, then don't. I have watched it myself and it just rose my anticipation of this wonderful game. This trailer simply blew me away.

Enjoy!

Golgo 13 Episode 4

2008-05-13T02:59:00.008-05:00

In this episode, Golgo 13 is hired by a prostitute. She wishes to get out of the hands of the mafia boss she is with, so she wants to have the boss killed, and she knows that Golgo 13 is a professional assassin, so she asks if he will take the job.

After he agrees to taking the job, she imagines herself having sex with him and begins thinking to herself that Golgo 13 will leave the city with her, even though he had not agreed to such a thing. During the episode, one of the guys in the mafia gets pushed off a balcony and a group of guys get pissed off about it, since he was their boss, so they decide to try and take out the mafia boss. Well, the mafia boss has a right-hand man by the name of, "Billy" who Golgo 13 even claims, "His drawing speed is on par with mine", so he's pretty exceptional with a gun.

While the group of guys try to assassinate the mafia boss after he walks out of this building, Billy protects him, shooting at the group of guys. While this is taking place though, Golgo 13 is across the street and shoots the mafia boss in the forehead with a silenced pistol, then walks off. After Billy takes out the group of guys, he tells the boss that everything is fine, then notices him fall over. So, Billy and the woman drive back to the hotel where Golgo 13 is staying, but Golgo 13 was waiting out in the parking lot for Billy, so when Billy steps out of the car, he grabs the woman's wrist, instructing her to get out, then notices Golgo 13 standing behind him. Shortly then after, he realizes his drawing speed has been reduced, since he's holding on to the woman's wrist, so he knows Golgo 13 will draw faster than him, but he quickly lets go of the woman's wrist, draws his gun, then you see Golgo 13 do the same and they both fire at each other with Golgo 13 being the victor (of course).

Afterwards, the woman is smiling, happy that she doesn't have to live her life as a mafia woman anymore, then notices Golgo 13 begin to walk away. She then proceeds to get upset and ask, "I thought you was going to Florida with me!", then states, "Rejected..by an assassin? I hate you! I hate you!!" and picks up the gun that Billy had and fires at Golgo 13, but she misses and Golgo 13 shoots her through the chest, killing her as well, walking away afterwards. WHY?! WHY couldn't she have just been satisfied with getting away?! You don't fuck with Golgo 13. Woman or not. Bah..what an idiot. Oh well.

One more month

2008-05-12T14:58:00.008-05:00

In exactly one month from now, Hideo Kojima will release a game worldwide, which has been awaited for by many many gamers. I'm talking about none other than, "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots". This game will be the last chapter of Solid Snake's life and I will surely hate to see the man go, but..all things must come to an end, no matter how epic they may be..unfortunately. I'm not exactly sure how long the game will be, but seeing as it is barely able to fit on 50 gigs of space, my expectations are rather high for it. However..I do not have any worries that this title will simply blow me away. I know Kojima has poured his heart and soul into this last chapter of Solid Snake's life and I'm absolutely certain he won't fail to deliver to the fans.

Moving right along, here we have the official standard boxart. There are a lot of different opinions floating around about this, since it isn't drawn by Yoji Shinkawa, however...

for the guys willing to pay an additional $10 for the Limited Edition which features two documentaries and the OST for MGS4, you can get a boxart with artwork done by Yoji Shinkawa. Personally, I prefer the Limited Edition, but..I'm already paying $74 for the Standard Edition alone, so..despite how epic this may be, I'm not made of money, lol. I already burned quite the hole in my pocket with this release, so I should just be fortunate I'm even able to get the game, despite not being able to get the better boxart :P

I'm really looking forward to the release of MGS4 and will probably make another post about it next month once I obtain my copy, giving impressions on this highly anticipated title.

Till then :)

It's getting kind of cramped in here

2008-05-10T17:59:00.004-05:00

Yes, there's yet another update to the site. Just recently, I decided to add a shoutbox (right below the Hatsune Miku clock) to allow visitors to communicate with one another, also, you can communicate with myself this way as well for quick responses (if I'm looking at the site at that particular moment, of course :P). I'm not sure how many people will use it, but feel free to.

All I ask is try to keep things nice and clean (i.e. don't throw around profanity every two seconds or discuss about pornography. Fictional or the real thing). If you want to talk about that sort of thing, please go elsewhere. Other than that, enjoy :)

Edit: Also, before I forget..you can only post up to 150 characters with each post. So keep that in mind when making a post. Then again..it's called a "shout"box for a reason. I'm sure you wouldn't be shouting a novel, but rather something small and simple. Just thought I'd give a heads up.

City on Fire review

2008-05-10T03:15:00.007-05:00

First, I'd like to say that I have seen plenty of Chow Yun Fat films and this one is pretty good among the ones I have seen. This movie was released around the same time, "A Better Tomorrow" came out, in 1987. You'll find that most movies from the 80's were original and had a sort of flare to them which made them awesome, unlike most of our films these days. Anyway, but yeah..this movie came out in '87 and I enjoyed it a lot.

Chow Yun Fat makes a lot of funny faces and remarks in this movie though, lol. As far as the action is concerned..well..there's not a whole lot, if you relate it to his other films. I still prefer, "A Better Tomorrow" over any of his films, but this one certainly wasn't bad. I'm sure the action fans will be a little disappointed with this one, but..I think the film did fine and they showed plenty of action, but didn't go overboard with it, like say.."Hard Boiled".

Since I'm not very good at writing a synopsis for anything, I have taken one that was already written from someone on imdb, if you would like to get a good idea of what the film is about. Credit goes to the person who wrote this, not myself, of course.

"When an undercover cop is killed, Chow (Chow Yun-Fat) is recruited by Inspector Lau (Sun Yueh) to take his place trying to infiltrate a gang of thieves. But Chow had previously done undercover work and had developed an emotional bond with the men he then later had to betray--and he is afraid it could happen again. The loyalty of the younger cop to the older man will be tested against the bonds he must form with the criminals in order to be trusted by them. This theme of the similarities between cops and criminals is a staple of the heroic bloodshed branch of Hong Kong cinema. Chow befriends Fu (Danny Lee) by posing as a man who can supply the guns needed for a jewellry heist. Director Ringo Lam stages his action and street scenes with a high degree of realism. The characters' movements are erratic and the violence is brutal and unstylised, with everything unfolding in believable chaos. Released at the same time as A BETTER TOMORROW, it made Chow Yun-Fat a Hong Kong star. This Hong Kong classic formed the basis for Quentin Tarantino's later RESERVOIR DOGS.".

The film is over an hour long and it does feel like it when you're watching. Now I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but there's a lot of talking and buildup to the main point which is towards the end of the film. If you're looking for something under an hour or an action flick, I'd suggest looking elsewhere, but if you're looking for something with some action, a little bit of comedy, and suspense, I'd say give, "City on Fire" a shot. I really enjoyed this film and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for what I stated above, and to Chow Yun Fat fans such as myself.

I give it a:

7 out of 10

The Journey has ended

2008-05-09T01:22:00.002-05:00

I just finished beating, "The Journey" part of Persona 3: FES and would go ahead and post a review, but I'm in a fit of tears at the moment. I'm having a bawwwwwfest right now, so I'm going to have to settle on just putting the FES playlist up for the time being. I'll write the review later T_T

Kurenai Episode 2

2008-05-06T20:59:00.008-05:00

I'm really not sure why I didn't post episode 1 up, but I guess I'm being a little irresponsible about it and have been slacking. Not to mention, I was a little hesitant I guess since I wasn't sure if I was even going to watch episode 2, but..I decided to tonight. So, basically..from what I've gathered so far is..our main character, Shinkuro Kurenai settles disputes between people. Despite being a highschool student, he can handle it through violence as well with the power in his arm. I'm not really sure what kind of power he has, but..he's pretty strong, whatever it is.

I'm sure we'll find out what his power is later. Besides, this is only the second episode. I'll be looking forward to seeing it. Now, moving on..as we know, Kurenai is basically what we call a "dispute mediator". He steps in when both parties can't come to an agreement on something. He resolves the matter through talking or through violence when necessary. However, his latest job is different from what he's used to taking. One day, he is asked to protect this seven year old girl who originates from a powerful family and is used to having servants and whatnot, so you can just guess this doesn't go over well for Kurenai.

The girl, Murasaki, tries to boss Kurenai around after their first meeting, but after a couple of days, she's finally understanding what Kurenai told her in the beginning, "You may have had servants there, but this isn't your home. I'm not your servant. I'm your bodyguard". So, it was a bit of a rough ride in the beginning, but things seem to be going a lot better now. Murasaki is being a little more understanding, which I guess could be kind of hard, since she went from having a lifestyle where everyone was doing anything for her to having to do things on her own and understand the way of life for an average person.

I don't really know in what direction this series will go, but..I'm honestly kind of surprised. This is pretty much a slice of life kind of series and I'm not really interested in those at this point (given how many we have NOW). The animation is rather interesting though. I'm not exactly sure how to describe it, but..it has its own unique kind of look to it, which I like. There's also the mystery of Kurenai's arm which I'm wanting to find out, so..piecing everything together, I really don't see a reason to stop watching. I look forward to episode 3 and will post about it ~~if I remember to~~ after I watch it.

Persona -Trinity Soul- Episode 15

2008-05-05T22:02:00.007-05:00

I forgot to update for episode 14, so I'll make a brief summary of what happened. Basically, we got a new opening and ending theme, and Ryou is missing at the moment. He was spotted during episode 14, but all-in-all, nobody knows his whereabouts. Also, Shin was informed by a member of this organization of Persona users that his brother, Ryou, was taking suppressants. Now that we are caught up, to go on with episode 15. Well, I'm really liking the new opening theme, but I think I liked the old ending them more than this one though :P.

So, basically what's going on right now is..the police is currently undergoing an investigation of what exactly happened three days ago. A Persona user appeared in the middle of the street at night, during traffic no less, and his Persona got out of control, so it was released in front of everyone, showing the police officers, highschool kids, you name it. Shortly thereafter, the Persona was shot down by Ryou's, then he disappeared, so..the police know for a FACT now that something is going on, now that they have seen it with their own eyes. Not much progress has been made in the investigation though. They just know that Apathy Syndrome, Personas, the incident which took place 10 years ago, everything..it all links with each other. Now it's just going to take some time to piece it all together.

I have been waiting for the LONGEST time for them to explain or show how this has a relation to Persona 3 outside of "Persona"or "Apathy Syndrome" and it finally happened in this episode. The character you see above is none other than Sanada Akihiko from Persona 3. When I first saw him, I noticed the hairstyle and color, plus the red tie and the black gloves and I said to myself, "Hey, this guy looks kind of like Akihiko", and sure enough..shortly thereafter, he introduced himself, "Sanada Akihiko" while eating. Although..he seems to be quite the geek in -Trinity Soul-, lol. He's actually seen typing on a computer earlier in the episode and seems to be proficient at it as well. In Persona 3, he talks about how he's not really good with technology and only focuses on his training, so I guess things have changed these past few years since then.

Anyway, outside of that..the friends of Shin were told about the pills and the whole episode basically consisted of talking and explaining a few things about what has happened so far, so we saw some development in the story by understanding more about what's going on now. It should be interesting to see where we go from here in our next episode, now that Akihiko is even involved now.

Update to take place during Dark Hour

2008-05-04T18:29:00.002-05:00

I got around to making a playlist for Persona 3, HOWEVER...I didn't have much upload space left on my account, so I could only get the tracks from FES instead of all three albums like I had hoped, but..I will still put up the playlist regardless. I'll be bringing the playlist up at Dark Hour tonight (for those who aren't aware of when that is, check back on my blog around Midnight CST).

I'm also just going to say in advance, my favorite tracks are:

1. The Snow Queen
2. Persona
3. Time Castle

I hope you enjoy it :)

Golgo 13 Episode 3

2008-05-03T21:10:00.006-05:00

Well, this episode had a client make a rather strange request, but it was interesting. Golgo 13 has a client request for him to shoot out the tire of a Japanese vehicle during a rally race because the man is afraid that if the Japanese car wins the race, then his automobile company will go bankrupt. He was complaining about how Japanese cars were taking over the streets of France and wished to prevent this from going any further, which is why he hired Golgo 13..because he was the only man who could take a shot at a tire's car while it is going over 200 km/h without leaving the bullet impact, so it makes it look like the tire just blew instead.

I thought it was rather interesting to see him take a request like this also, instead of just taking requests which involve always killing someone, so I was pleased with this episode and hope this isn't the only time they do something like this. I'd like to see how Golgo 13 is good with the gun outside of killing people. I already know he's good at killing people, lol. Also, somewhere next to the rally course, two guys were helping test out these new assault rifles that this guy made which was said to even surpass the M-16. Ironically enough, the gun Golgo 13 asked to have customized was a M-16.

So, this guy was out to prove to the world that his new assault rifles could even surpass the M-16. Well, after Golgo 13 had shot the tire out, he began getting shot at from one of the guys carrying the new rifle. After a while, Golgo 13 finally began to move around, hiding behind some rocks and so forth, then finally understood the weakness of the rifles and began exploiting that weakness, eventually killing both of the guys with the M-16 he had. The guy who made the rifles and wanted Golgo 13 dead tried to get away, but the tire got shot out on his vehicle and it fell off the edge of a cliff and he crawled out, then asked Golgo 13 what kind of gun it was that made that kind of shot, so Golgo 13 said it was a M-16 custom, then the guy understood why his rifles still couldn't compete with the M-16 since it can be customized, so he started laughing hysterically, then the episode ended with Golgo 13 killing him.

Overall, I thought the episode was nice just because it wasn't all about, "kill kill kill" and this gave it a different feel, seeming original, and kept things interesting. Anyway, once again..I look forward to seeing episode 4 next week or so :)

Persona 3: FES

2008-05-03T17:32:00.009-05:00

As all you gamers may already know, Persona 3: FES was released the 22nd of last month and I should have posted this sooner, but to be perfectly honest..the game has been taking up most of my time, so I'm here posting about it while I eat dinner :P. In any event, let's move on. Atlus has claimed that Persona 3: FES is more than just an expansion and boy are they right. For starters, we have a new difficulty to access from the beginning, "Hard" for the gamers looking for a challenge. Secondly, we are able to change costumes in this one as well, we are also able to visit the gaming arcade this time around, AND we can even change the theme of Tartarus at a certain point in the game.

We are also able to date Elizabeth this time around AND Aegis. The game features new cutscenes, extra dialogue, 17 (I think) new songs, not to mention..we are also given a new chapter added to the game known as, "Episode Aegis" in the Japanese release, "The Answer" in our version, which features 30+ hours of extra gameplay where you take the role of Aegis and basically fill in all the blanks that were left in the main story (to my knowledge). Ah yes, we also have 20+ extra personas that we can fuse this time around as well and speaking of fusion..there will be a shop which opens later in the game which allows you to fuse weapons with the current personas you have on you. For example, you sacrifice Jack Frost to make a sword or bow, etc.

Yukari in a maid outfit, yum yum =3. Putting that aside though, there is also a nifty little something they added known as a "surveillance camera" where you can watch recordings of events which took place behind closed doors or when you wasn't at the dorm and had no way of seeing them. The recordings are rather amusing if anything and yet ANOTHER great feature added to FES. Ah, before I forget..there are also new requests you can take for Elizabeth as well. I'm not quite sure how many new ones there are, but there are some I don't remember taking in the original. I keep forgetting how many new features there are in the game because there are SO many. It's hard to keep up with all of it, so I wholeheartedly agree with the statement Atlus made, "This is more than an expansion".

If you need a reason to play FES, despite playing the original like myself, you can find your reason, I'm sure of it. For me, I'm playing through FES because of all the newly added features with the 40+ extra hours of gameplay added AND so I can actually date Aegis this time, not to mention..play through her chapter after I finish the main story. This has been one of the greatest RPGs I've played in a very long time. The music is absolutely great, they kept all of the honorifics, and basically just translated the game for our enjoyment and left all of the names intact instead of changing anything, which is ALWAYS welcome in the world of RPGs. So yes, I would HIGHLY recommend picking this game up if you are into Japanese RPGs, like very expansive titles, dating sims, and love having unlimited freedom with your choices, not to mention..a time sink that's the equivalent of an MMO, lol. It's honestly hard for me to even find any complaints about this title, so..I'm sure the review will be up after I beat the game (which could take SOME time), and I'm also thinking of making a Persona 3 playlist which features all of the original songs, plus the songs from Burn My Dread ~Reincarnation~ album and the new songs from FES.

That's if I get some time to :P

Aoki Densetsu Shoot! Episode 25

2008-05-02T02:42:00.006-05:00

I'm not really sure why, but I stopped watching this series for a while. A couple of months actually. In any case, the series is about soccer and in this episode, the regular roster was to be announced for the Championship coming up soon. Our main character, Tanaka, was worrying if he would get chosen or not, but his friends cheered him up and whatnot, then members of the soccer club began wondering who would wear Kubo's (their previous Captain) number.

Turns out, Tanaka was given Kubo's number, but instead of being happy about it..he actually got a little depressed because he felt as if he wasn't deserving of it and that someone else should have it. Well, once again, his friends cheered him up..explaining to him why he was chosen and he still didn't really understand too well. It was just something he was going to have to figure out on his own. Why the previous Captain entrusted number 10 to him.

After sitting around for a while thinking to himself about it, he finally decided to go talk with the Vice-Captain about it and they talked with each other for a little while, then the next morning Tanaka was found on the field wearing the legendary number 10 uniform. He had finally decided that he would uphold the Captain's will and try to carry on the team to the best of his ability. It's a good thing he came around so quickly too, with the Championship right around the corner. I'm not really sure if they will win since the series is 50 something episodes long, but I'll be pulling for Kake-High regardless and hope Tanaka eventually reaches the point of being the next Kubo.

Toki Den OVA Review

2008-05-01T03:22:00.011-05:00

So, after having a bawwwwfest watching the new Hokuto no Ken OVA focused on one of my favorite characters from the series, Toki, I have decided to write a little review about it. The animation is kept the same as the other OVAs, which I don't have a problem with. I think the animation looks great. It has a really nice quality to it, I'd say. There were a couple of changes and additions to the OVA though which weren't featured in the series.

We see him actually leave the dojo to prepare for his long journey to fulfill the promise he made to Raoh as a child. "If I ever stray the path of righteousness, I want you to be the one to seal my fist". However, the doctor which has been treating Toki for his illness, Sarah, she begs him to let her go as well (we've seen Sarah in the other OVAs as well). So they travel together and Toki teaches her a few things about vital points and Hokuto Shinken along the way.

While heading towards their destination, Toki becomes even worse and so they finally come across a village and stay there for a while. Toki and Sarah help a lot of sick people and people who have broken bones or some other type of injury and/or disease. Finally, just as Toki was about to get ready to leave the village, Sarah tries to convince him to stay, but he says that his destiny is to fulfill the promise he made to Raoh and starts to leave, however..some of Raoh's men come to the village and are about to kill the villagers protecting Toki, but he shakes his head at Sarah, then follows them willingly where he is imprisoned within a jail cell in a city known as, "Cassandra".

Unfortunately, nothing was shown that we didn't already see about Cassandra, so shortly thereafter, we see Kenshiro bust through the wall and have his little talk with the guards which are threatening to kill Toki, but instead, actually get killed by Toki's technique, "Hokuto Ujou Ken" allowing his enemies to die in peace instead of in excruciating pain. So Kenshiro and Toki reunite and leave Cassandra, preparing for Toki's final battle with Raoh. Before the fight begins, we see Toki perform a technique known as, "Sekkatsu Ko" which dramatically increases your body's physically performance, but shortens your lifespan significantly in the process. We saw him perform this in the series as well, but I think it had a little more of an impact in the OVA, when he performed it and he screamed, "Gods of the Heavens! Grant me your strength! PLEASE!!". It just showed how much he really cared about Raoh and he did it in the series too, just without the screaming.

Honestly, I wish they would have kept Toki's original aura color which was blue. I just think gold was a bit too vibrant for him and I don't really relate gold to being "calm", which is what Toki's fist is generally referred as. That or compassionate, warm, soft, etc. I can see the relation between those words and the soft blue aura he had, but gold? Eh..not so much. It's not really that big of a deal, but it just kind of made me grumble for a moment, then I accepted it. Raoh's aura color stayed the same though. I mean really..what better way to show that someone is controlled by the lust for power than to show them with a dark red aura? I can easily relate red to someone who wants a lot of power and has evil ambitions. I'm not claiming Raoh is evil, however..he IS very power-hungry and usually if you're getting that much power to rule the world (by force/fear, no less) it's hard to say that isn't exactly classified as evil.

Exactly what I was stating above, red represents power-hungry..which is exactly what Toki became in the middle of the battle, driven to try and defeat his older brother, he used a technique his older brother knew known as, "Gou no Ken" (Power Fist). We see Raoh dodge the first couple of attacks, then jump into the air and Toki follows into the air performing his own technique which is an aerial version of "Hokuto Hyaku-Retsu Ken" known as, "Hokuto Ten-sho Hyaku-Retsu Ken"(it roughly translates to, "Hundred flying fists of Hokuto"). He performs the tecnique magnificently, bringing Raoh to the ground, making him cough up blood, then quickly rushes forward, and thrusts his right hand into the chest of Raoh.

However, the attack is useless. Raoh grabs Toki's hand, so Toki thrust his other hand into Raoh's body, but Raoh takes grabs it as well, then tells Toki, "If you weren't sick..you would've beaten me..without a doubt", then pulls Toki's hand out of his chest, then performs "Hokuto Hyaku-Retsu Ken" on Toki, then gives the finishing blow. Toki is barely able to stand on his feet afterwards, then rushes towards Raoh for a final attack, and dodges it easily, grabbing Toki from behind and begins crying while holding him, admiring his ambition. Raoh then leaves Toki in Kenshiro's care and rides off telling Kenshiro that he can find him on the battlefield when he is ready.

So, Toki was left crying in the arms of Kenshiro, not being able to fulfill the promise he made to Raoh. Toki and Kenshiro exchanges a few words with each other and by this point, I was just crying like a baby, lol. It was a very touching moment in the series and this was no different. It was still executed very well. Damn you Toki for being such a compassionate man. How could I not cry for him? He's such a good guy, but gets screwed over so bad. Anyway, afterwards, we see a scene of Raoh riding off, then it goes back to the village where Sarah had stayed at and tried to convince Toki to stay at. While she is standing in a flower garden, the wind blows, then she looks to her left and sees Toki standing before her, so she runs over to him and wraps her arms around him.

Ryuga wasn't introduced at all in the movie, so it was only natural he was still alive at that point, unless they would have changed his way of dying in the OVA and died in Kenshiro's arms after the fight with Raoh. Although..I also don't understand how he dies in the series either though. I mean...how do you just..vanish? Nobody else vanished when they died in HnK, so why Toki? Ah, well..putting that aside, I believe this OVA was very nice. The animation was great, the music was really well done and I actually did cry during the ending as well when seeing Toki and this particular theme began to play, then the credits started rolling.

All-in-all, this is very much worth the watch. I give it a:

4 out of 5

Seeing as it is based on one of my favorite characters, that may be a biased rating, but I did thoroughly enjoy this animation and thought it was executed rather well. Also, here a link to download the ending theme for the OVA if you would like to hear it:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/tc02tx

The song is titled, "Hanamori no Oka" by Kaori Oda (music composed by Yuki Kajiura). The singer is a genius. I can't even recall the songs she has sang which I disliked. She sings a wide assortment of music and has a good voice. Anyway, feel free to download it and take a listen if you are interested :)

One Piece Episodes 350 & 351

2008-05-01T01:24:00.007-05:00

I'm finally caught up with One Piece and now I have to wait like everyone else for the episodes, lol. I've come a long way on a journey that many have taken, trying to reach the Grand Line. 350 episodes into the series and it's still just as great as when we first began our journey on the Going Merry. It's hard to believe ANY series can maintain that kind of quality, much less..a Shounen anime. Most Shounen titles end up going down the road of "over 9,000" or "where have I seen this before?" and it's kind of hard to keep you hooked, because..let's face it..350 episodes in ANY series, it would be hard to keep things fresh and interesting. However, One Piece is one of the few that can manage to be original even this late into the series (actually, according to Oda, we're not even close to being finished, so I'm not sure "late" would be a proper term).

Well, we finally get to see the zombie that Luffy's shadow is going into and wow...this thing makes GIANTS look like ants. This zombie is HUGE. I'm really starting to understand why Gecko Moria (the guy that took Luffy's shadow) said this will be the strongest zombie, especially with Luffy's shadow. I'm still at the edge of my seat, trying to figure out how in the world they plan on taking this zombie down. I mean come on..it has the power of Luffy and it's THAT huge. This certainly isn't going to be easy, but with most of our crew in danger only leaving us with Usopp, Chopper, Robin, and Franky..it doesn't look good.

Thriller Bark has certainly been a very interesting arc and I've been on the edge of my seat before watching every episode so far, because everything is just so exciting and climatic. I really have no idea what's going to happen at this point, but..that's what keeps me so hooked on it. I like watching series which are unpredictable and don't follow the same generic stuff we see in MOST anime these days. For example..the fact that Luffy still got caught even after breaking out of that cage, my jaw dropped. I was just baffled that something like that occurred, since he's the main character and the victory-type BGM started playing, but even so..he was caught and now..well, we're in a pretty horrible situation.

Of course, the next episode I'm excited about even more though. Brook is going to be getting a lot of screentime it seems (judging from the preview). The episode is titled, "A conviction strong enough to beg for one's life! Brook protects his afro". So apparently, the General Zombie I mentioned earlier..that zombie (the one seen above on the right) has Brook's shadow and Brook has already lost to him before, but..I'm hoping he'll pull it off this time around. I'm really looking forward to it. Yohohoho~!

MGO beta pwnage

2008-04-30T02:45:00.002-05:00

I'm kind of starting to feel like FPS Doug in a sense. I've gotten so many headshots since Friday (4/25). I took a look at my personal data earlier and I have put 18 hours into the game and have 422 headshots. That means I was making a headshot at least every 2 1/2 minutes. I'm only going to be getting more too, so I'll probably have over 1,000 before the beta ends :P

Anyway, I decided to post up the video of the man himself since it reminded me of him, not to mention..the video is epic anyway :)

Boom headshot!!

One Piece Episodes 348 & 349

2008-04-29T21:42:00.007-05:00

I haven't made a post in regards to One Piece in a while, so that's why you'll see some missing episode numbers within the blog. Anyway, I decided to watch episodes 348 and 349 tonight and all I can say is, "Wow...". Now I know why I have stuck with One Piece throughout the whole series and why I couldn't do that with Bleach, despite them both being shounen series. The quality is just much better with One Piece and it stays that way throughout the whole series (up to what I've seen so far). There hasn't been a point where I have actually had to sit down and think to myself, "Is this really worth watching anymore...?" or have this sort of disgust with the main character, like I have started to have with Ichigo from Bleach.

I'm not going to be watching Bleach for a while, but One Piece on the other hand..wow. I was simply amazed at these episodes, mainly because we see how the main character and even the support characters aren't..well..perfect. Long story short, the Strawhat crew is in a pretty terrible situation at the moment. Their three strongest members (in my opinion), Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji have all been captured. Nami, Chopper, and Usopp are all stuck together and haven't been caught yet, BUT...they don't have the power to do anything to help the others at the moment..then we have Franky and Robin who are both pretty strong, but haven't met up with any of the other crew members yet.

However, Brook has made a reappearance and I had a guess he was insane, but wow...I didn't know he was THAT crazy. Apparently he is known by the nickname, "The Hummer" and "The Humming Swordsman". He also told us a little history behind Thriller Bark and now I understand how these zombies are constructed. It's pretty ridiculous really. You see, Brook's shadow was stolen from him and put into a zombie, so it acquired the strength which Brook had and brought life to the zombie. So, at this particular point..you can only guess what will happen if Zoro, Sanji's, and Luffy's shadows are stolen and they lose their powers, but have to somehow fight against zombies with that kind of strength.

Bad news is..Luffy's shadow has already been taken. Ya know, I can honestly say..I didn't expect this to happen. Luffy even broke out of the cage he was being held in by eating through the bars, so I figured, "Alright, so he's going to escape", but no..he got caught and had his shadow taken away from him. So, despite being the main character, he can still get royally screwed, which is something I can't really say about ~~Superman~~ Ichigo. So, I'm really interested to see how in the WORLD they plan on taking down a zombie with the strength of Luffy, cause Luffy is pretty damn insane in terms of fighting ability.

This is exactly why I keep watching One Piece though. It keeps me entertained by not doing things I have seen 1,000 times already and despite the things they do in the series which seem really off-the-wall, they do a good job at explaining everything to where, yeah..it may sound really weird, but it makes sense (i.e. shadow extraction). In any case, I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out and I HOPE that Brook becomes a crew member :(

I've just really liked what I've seen of him so far.

Yohohohoho~!

EDIT: I'm going to go ahead and start posting medium-sized preview pictures in my posts now, so it looks a little better. The small ones can't really give you a good view of what you're looking at, but medium will be better and large is just too big to post all the time.

Small addition to the site

2008-04-26T04:22:00.002-05:00

If you scroll all the way down at the bottom, where the playlist used to be, I have placed a hit counter there to keep track of the traffic on the site. I don't expect there to be a WHOLE lot, but if I see it rise more than how many times I actually visit, then I'll know at least somebody else is paying attention, lol.

Something small, yes, but felt the need to make a post about it regardless :P

Metal Gear Online Premiere β impressions

2008-04-25T20:09:00.007-05:00

Well, I finally got to sign in today for the Metal Gear Online beta for PS3. The first thing I had to do was make my character, which is a totally new feature to MGO. So, I named my character, "Koji Sakujin" which is an alias I have had for quite a few years now, so I guess you could say it's my pen name. Anyway, I customized my character, then got to the lobby. Given that this installment has new controls (I mean, come on..you use CQC with the R1 button for cryin' out loud...), I took a test run in Training to get the hang of the controls and the movement.

Things felt a little sluggish at first. I was trying to get the hang of switching between the "over-the-shoulder" camera and FPS mode. I made a few tweaks to the sensitivity, inverted my camera, then things felt a bit more smooth with the settings I changed to. You can still fire in third person, but honestly..with this new "over-the-shoulder" camera angle, it's a bit more practical than just running around in third person trying to shoot. I also thought I was going to be using FPS mode a lot more than I have been, but I usually just stay away from it.

From what I've noticed, it has just been an upgrade (graphically and gameplay-wise) from the original MGO. I like all of the new features they have added, especially the SOP system, which allows you to link with your fellow teammates and keep track of them, plus know where the enemy's location is with their help. I can really see this being something I could sit down with for a few hours to play and whatnot. It's pretty fun and seeing as this is just a taste of what we can expect with the Starter Pack included with MGS4, I can honestly say..I'm really looking forward to seeing the final product.

Over and out.

Mr. Socrates review

2008-04-25T01:51:00.007-05:00

This is a review for a Korean crime film known as, "Mr. Socrates". I'm a fan of the Korean crime films, so I definitely had to look into this one as well :). The story involves a young man being chosen by this syndicate to study academics and become a cop, so they can have someone on the inside give them information and whatnot.

After he becomes a cop, he starts to question his beliefs of what is right and wrong, and tries to decide where his heart lies...with the syndicate or the police force? I'm not going to spoil it and tell you what he decides, but I will say that I enjoyed the movie and the plot was good enough to keep me hooked for a little over the 1 hour and 30 minutes running time of the film. Now, when it comes to Korean crime films, if you've seen a handful of them..you've seen them all, lol.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love them. That's why I keep watching them one after another, but the thing that matters most is how the film is executed. I've seen the plot of an "inside man" before, but I was still interested enough in this film because they did enough with it to make it not like others I have seen and that's important. In any case, I thought this movie was well worth watching. It has some rather funny moments in it, so you get some comedic value along with the chases, the action, and the detective setting as well. I don't think the film was enough to be called, "EXTRAORDINARY!!!" or anything like that, since I've seen so many of these, but I still think it was worth watching and very entertaining. I give it a:

7 out of 10

Bus Gamer Episode 3

2008-04-24T20:45:00.007-05:00

So I watched the third (and last?) episode of Bus Gamer and the location of this match was in a building with tons of people inside, unlike the others, which were located in abandoned factories/buildings. So it was pretty difficult to tell who was on the home team, since they could just blend in with the crowd and whatnot. The only difference in the conditions of winning this time was, the home and away team had a disk to protect, unlike how it usually is, where the home team just has the disk and the away team has to steal it before time runs out.

Naturally, NO NAME won the match by keeping their disk and taking home's disk. The police arrive shortly after and the team runs off, but after exiting the building, a man approaches them, wanting home team's disk since he's part of the organization which runs the game and such. They give it to him, then go out to eat later and begin talking about a few things.

The team is eating and in the middle of the conversation, Toki brings up a hypothetical situation about, "What if there's another team that bribed me for more money than we have currently have? I would kill you". There's a staredown, then Saitou smiles and says something like, "Toki-san wouldn't kill me", then gets up to go get more food. Nothing really came from that, but they all ended up smiling, acting like a team, even to the very end. They leave the restaurant and it's morning by this time, so they all go their separate ways telling each other, "See you later", "If we win the next game that is", and "If we're alive rather...". So their could be some sort of hint that there's room for another episode, but it only says that the series was scheduled for 3.

After they all part ways, it shows us how all of the team members have went back to their everyday lives. That also makes me curious. If they won so much money from playing this game, even if it was divided amongst the team, each of them would STILL have a good 400,000+ yen in their pocket, so why are they working these small-time jobs (like Saitou above, working at a convenience store) ? Well..honestly, if this is the last episode..I didn't like the ending too much since it was rushed and didn't really explain a lot of stuff that they brought up. Not to mention, we don't even know if that was the last match. They make it seem like it is, but with someone saying, "If we win the next game..", it raises doubts obviously.

Anyway, if anybody is looking into watching this series, I wouldn't really recommend it. I would give it a:

2 out of 5

if you're looking to know more about this series, I'd say go for the manga instead. It was executed a lot better than the animation. If the animation was scheduled for 26 episodes or so instead, hell..even 12 would've worked..then I think it would've been a lot better. However..you can't cover something like this in the course of 3 episodes. That was just a bit silly and we can clearly see it was a budget title.

I expected a little more from the creator of Saiyuki =/

Golgo 13 Episode 2

2008-04-23T21:37:00.004-05:00

This episode was just as awesome as the first, I believe. However, in this episode, we also find out that our main character isn't perfect. That's a good thing though, just from a personal preference. I'd rather have a main character with some flaws rather than a flawless one. In any case, so the episode started out with the usual, "Will you do it?" type conversation between Golgo 13 and the client and Golgo 13 accepts (it was for $3,000,000..I would be more surprised if he DIDN'T accept).

So, he is given the information about the target and whatnot, then rents a room for a week. He finally positions himself on the balcony (as seen above) and takes aim, then fires, hitting his target in the forehead, killing him instantly. However, after the shot was fired, he hears a pot fall over beside him, so he quickly turns around reloading his gun, popping the shell of the bullet out, but turns out..it was only a cat. Well, the shell that had popped out of his rifle fell off the balcony, which made him give the "oh shi-!" face, so that certainly wasn't good.

Naturally, the police arrive shortly thereafter and begin questioning him. Golgo 13 really knows how to put on a poker face, that's for sure. While he was being questioned, he didn't show any sort of nervousness or anything of the sort through his body language or facial expressions. I knew the guy was a badass already (I mean come on..he shoots people with such precise aiming while wearing a suit), but man..just to see him lead the police around like that, as if they were just idiots was rather amusing. So, he made a mistake by leaving the shell from the rifle behind, but he was still able to get out of the situation in a reasonable manner (not some stupid response from the police, "We'll let you go this time"), so I didn't think his escape was cheap.

I think by the time I watch episode 3, I'll wonder, "What can this man NOT do?". He seems pretty exceptional with anything he does so far. He doesn't talk very much, so I guess some may say, "He needs a personality", but with how he is, I don't mind if he doesn't talk much. To me, that IS his personality and I like how he doesn't boast about how good he is and such.

I'll be looking forward to episode 3 airing.

Golgo 13 Episode 1

2008-04-22T23:00:00.006-05:00

Well, I decided to pick up a new anime recently by the name of, "Golgo 13". I remember seeing something about this in the 90's, but it was a movie and I believe it had some hentai and a lot of blood in it though. I think there was also a movie about Golgo 13 in the 80's as well, but I'm not certain about that. I just heard the movies weren't that great, really. The manga dates back all the way to 1969 though, I think. It could be '69, but maybe I'm thinking of something else.

The reason I decided to give this a try was because I haven't seen an action-type anime in a while and what doesn't scream, "ACTION!!!" about a series which revolves around a professional hitman? So, I decided to check out the first episode and it didn't exactly blow me away, but I did think it was interesting and look forward to seeing the next episode. The series is scheduled to run for 50 episodes and just started showing not too long ago, so they aren't even up to episode 10 yet.

Our main character, Golgo 13, he has already gained my respect as being just awesome. The man made a shot right between the eyes despite being two kilometers away from his target (look at that barrel!). I can tell you all right now..this man is just a walking badass. If you're into this type of scene where a guy is a hired for multiple jobs as a professional hitman and you like a good bit of violence, plus the girls from time to time (there was a sex scene in the first episode, lol), then I'd definitely recommend picking this up while it's hot and keep up with it. I can't wait to check out the next episode and see how many ways this man can think of to own his targets.

It should be interesting.

Quick update

2008-04-22T10:59:00.001-05:00

With the help of a friend, I've finally got my playlist on the right now, instead of at the bottom, so it should load as you enter the page..instead of having to scroll ALL the way down to get it to start playing :)

.hack//G.U. Trilogy impressions

2008-04-21T23:16:00.008-05:00

Alright, well..I just finished watching the movie which is supposed to sum up all three .hack//G.U. titles in the course of 1 hour and 33 minutes. Now, I played through all of the titles, so..I'm pretty sure what was changed and what was added. As for the added content, there was a good 15 minutes worth, maybe 20, I'd say. They changed a few things from the games though (for the better or the worse? You can decide that). For example..

they changed how Haseo obtains his Flicker (3rd) form. Yes, that would be a spoiler to some, but if you already read the previous stuff, you would know I said this was based on ALL three volumes :P. Anyway..in the movie though, he obtains his third form after a meeting with a certain "someone", which was not how it was done in the games, but..moving along.

As for the animation, I had no problem whatsoever at ALL with it. It was all done beautifully. I was practically in awe for most of the film. They didn't disappoint me in the slightest with the animation. I'm glad it turned out as good as it did. They stick with cel-shading and it kind of resembles the same cel-shading used in the games, but touched up a little. It looks absolutely wonderful.

Now, time for the bad news. You may already know, but..an estimate on the amount of time it should take to beat all three volumes is around 60 hours. This movie is only 1 hour and 33 minutes. Naturally, things felt a bit rushed. Quite a bit, actually. I kid you not, Haseo obtains his second form in the first 20 to 30 minutes of the film and it's simply through consecutive clips being shown, and it's just thrown in the middle of it. I honestly didn't like the pacing of it, since..if you didn't follow the games and was just wanting a summary of what happened, well..this wouldn't suffice. Hell, Endrance wasn't even introduced..nor was the twins or the two that follow Haseo around all the time. There wasn't even an @home or grunties :(

Back to the good news. The music was fantastic (as usual). This really wasn't even an issue for me. It's .hack. It practically HAS to have wonderful music..whether it be BGM or vocals, they have ALWAYS done a great job with both in the animation or gaming department. This movie was no different. I believe the vocals were done by our very own Yuki once more. It really sounded like her anyway and I would be surprised if it wasn't her (seeing as she did the music for G.U. anyway).

In the end, was it worth the watch? Yes. I would say so anyway. Yes, there were changes from the original story which were made and additional footage, not featured in the G.U. titles, however..I do believe it was still entertaining, but some of these changes may not be welcomed by some of our fellow .hackers. If anything, the animation alone was enough to pull me in. I can't express how epic it looked. However, for the simple fact that it couldn't possibly touch on everything which was covered in all three volumes, in the course of 1 hour and 33 minutes, PLUS the fact that they added some footage and changed the story around a little bit, which may not be welcomed by everyone, I'll give it a:

3 out of 5

If anything, you'd want to take 1 hour and 33 minutes out of your day to watch this if you are a .hack fan. I just don't think I could see myself watching multiple times though, really. Other than that, it was worth the wait and I enjoyed it :)

Tales of the Abyss review

2008-04-20T13:47:00.002-05:00

I meant to actually get around to posting this earlier, but I got caught up with a few things, so I'll go ahead and post it now. Alright, well..I finished the game in a little over 76 hours, so this game is clearly an expansive one. Now, if 76 hours is how long it took for me to do everything in the game, then that wouldn't be too surprising, however..there was quite a few things I still missed, despite having that much time put into it. As for the review itself, let's get started.

Graphics 8/10
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The graphics were pretty good, I'd say. They weren't say..FFXII graphics which would simply blow you away. It was nothing of that quality, however..for the Tales series, these were pretty good on their own. All of the characters were really well drawn, despite not having every little detail carved into them, you could still appreciate the work. The environments are pretty nice to look at from time to time again. Once again, don't be expecting FFXII graphics here, but they were nice enough to look at and were not bad on the eyes at all. The textures had a colorful look to them, like in other Tales games, that has not changed here.

I'm all for the anime look, so maybe my opinion is a bit biased in those regards, however..this is my review after all. Overall, I would say these graphics are quite pleasing to the eyes and you won't have a problem sitting down with the game for a good few hours.

Story: 6/10
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Why did the story barely get above average? Well..it's a Japanese RPG. If you're looking for something with a heavy story, this may not be for you. Like a majority of Japanese RPGs, this one follows the story of having to save the world. To be perfectly honest, I don't think it was the story itself which kept me hooked to this game, but was instead the interaction between the characters. In any case, the story won't blow you away, since it's rather cliché, but overall, the other stuff in the game should keep you entertained. They added their own spin on things, so I guess it shouldn't seem THAT overdone, but in the end..it all leads to the same thing..saving the world, yet AGAIN.

Characters: 8/10
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I would've given this a 9 if it wasn't for our hero. For about the first 20 hours of the game, you have to put up with Luke (our hero) being an asshole. I have no other way to put it. He's really just an asshole. He's stuck up, tells everyone to shut up, acts like nobody understands him at all. However, through about 75% of the game, he's actually a more likable character and he's not annoying anymore. Now I won't lie, he still has his moments, but later in the game, he's like a breath of fresh air as opposed to how he was in the beginning..toxic.

As for our other characters, this game has a wonderful cast of characters. Everyone (and I mean everyone..) gets tons of development, so even if your favorite isn't Luke, your favorite character will still get plenty of development. Things like that can really make or break a game like this which doesn't pull you in through the story. If it wasn't for the great support cast, I would've probably ditched this title a few hours into it, having to deal with Luke and the monotone crew.

Also, I would like to state that the characters are very well voiced. I played the Japanese version when it was first released and despite one of the characters being voiced by one of my favorite voice actors, Koyasu Takehito, the dubbing for this game was fantastic. You could really get a feel for the characters, how their personality was. The voices were well picked out for this title, which was a definite plus, considering there is TONS of dialogue textually and verbally. I mean T-O-N-S.

Aside from that, all I can really say is..I think Namco Bandai Games really did a great job picking the voice cast for this title and hope to look for more promising titles from them in the future. You guys should use this and your Xenosaga games as references guys! *hint hint, nudge nudge*

Gameplay: 9/10
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What can I say? It's an installment to a series I've been following for over 10 years now. This title is no different, really. It uses some of the basic mechanics dating all the way back to Phantasia and uses its own features to make it unique, but doesn't stray from the roots of how it came to be. For those not familiar with the Tales series, this is a "button button button button button button" type of battle system, followed by "button button button push direction button followed by another button". It seems a bit tedious on paper, but it's actually pretty fast paced and everything is in real time, much like all of the other Tales installments. You are able to push up, down, left or right plus the attack button to perform an attack in a different motion to increase your combo, followed by using your arte button (O), which will unleash a special attack.

You get multiple artes through the whole game, so there are tons of combinations as to how you can increase your combo. Not to mention, you can set an arte to your up, down, left and right directional buttons, so it's not like you are restricted to just using the same one the whole time either. That has always been the same for the Tales series though, however..what has NOT been the same is the newly added A.D. Skills featured in Abyss. They are passive skills you learn through the course of the game and are actually pretty awesome.

For example, all of your battles will take place in a 3D battlefield, however..if you don't have the A.D. Skill "Free Run", you will always just run left and right and can never move freely on the battlefield, despite it being in 3D, so Free Run gives you the option of moving anywhere you wish (which is a great skill to just run around your enemy and attack from behind for critical damage).

All in all, I've always enjoyed this battle system and Abyss just took it a step further by adding features which were welcomed with open arms. I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay and it never seemed redundant.

Sound: 7/10
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I was satisfied with the sounds used in this game, but I have heard better from the Tales series (i.e. Tales of Destiny). I know that's setting the bar pretty damn high, but that's to say it has been done. The sound in Abyss wasn't bad or anything of the sort, I just felt it was lacking from time to time and that they could have done better. The battle sound effects were nice, followed by the voices, but the music is one of my favorite features in a Tales game, and this one just felt like it could've done more in that category.

As I stated before, it's not bad or anything of the sort, but I just wish more could have been done in the music category, is all.

Replay Value: 6/10
--------------------

I don't really see anyone needing to play through this game more than twice. You can get everything you need in two playthroughs, but that's beside the point. It's an RPG. Most RPGs, this not being an exception, don't have high replay value. I think that's mainly because you invest so much time into it. Honestly, who wants to invest 70+ hours into something, then say, "Yeah! Let's do it again!!". It's practically a time sink and unless you feel the need to wash your hands with it more than necessary, I don't see any reason to come back more than twice.

Overall Score: 7/10
--------------------

In the end, do I believe this is worth a rental or a buy? Definitely a buy. It may not have that much replay value, but really..do you want to be pressured to try and beat a game this expansive in such a short time? I don't think you can really appreciate what this game has to offer on a rental alone. Go ahead and buy it, then sit back and enjoy the ride. I know it has been out for a while now, but I've had this title sitting on my shelf for a little over a year now and I can say..for someone who still has a PS2, this is proof your console isn't dead yet.

If you haven't picked up Tales of the Abyss yet, I would highly recommend it if you are a fan of RPGs, the Tales series, or especially a fan of J-RPGs who is really into the anime look of games and such, not to mention..if you just want something really expansive and you're all of the above, then this is just for you :)

All set up for MGO beta!

2008-04-19T14:35:00.003-05:00

So, I got my Metal Gear Saga Vol. 2 DVD in the mail today, which was totally unexpected. Naturally, I downloaded the beta for Metal Gear Online as soon as I checked my beta code. I was a little worried, to be honest. I've been visiting Gamefaqs from time to time, checking the board and was noticing that some people were getting 9 digit beta codes which were invalid. However..luckily, I got the 12 digit one like you are supposed to get.

Now that I've downloaded the beta, which was a little over 700 MB, I need to download the 1.01 update, which I'll probably have to download while I sleep or something. I left it up for about 10 - 15 minutes and it FINALLY reached 1%, so I stopped it there and canceled the download, and decided to just start it before I go to sleep instead. I'm not going to sit here for like 8 - 10 hours not using my PS3 because of that =/

Anyway, now I just have to wait till the 21st and hop on in as "grimmer-san", since that's the game ID I chose :P

Hokuto no Ken Episodes 139 & 140

2008-04-17T21:50:00.007-05:00

Our dudes are so bad, they can shoot laser beams from their eyes now. I've seen a LOT of stuff in Hokuto no Ken, but never did I think they would resort to the eye lasers. It's a little cheesy, but..it's from the 80's, so I guess I can forgive it, since that was cool back then. I am a little disappointed though by how much of the villains they are showing and how little of Kenshiro is being shown. At this particular point, we just take up a few minutes seeing our main villain stand and grunt while forming this evil looking aura (and shoot lasers from his eyes), then a few minutes later..back to grunting and going over 9,000. I mean, honestly..like we're supposed to be in awe and go, "Ohhhh..this guy is soooooo crazy! Show him do it again!". I got it the first time, I don't need them to show him do another grunt, followed by a power up.

In better news, Kenshiro got more screen time in episode 340 and we got less grunting, but still a lot of "over 9,000" moments. Especially with Kenshiro. Ya know, I liked it the first time I saw Kenshiro surrounded by a blue aura, then later..red eyes added to that, but now...it's old hat. I mean, I guess you could still say, "That's crazy", cause it's Kenshiro, but really..I think they were running out of ideas at this point. Well, outside of that..it looks like Kenshiro will be getting more screen time again finally and we'll get to see his fight against the evil grunting Marvel vs Capcom Cyclops move stealing aura man (that's always over 9,000). It should be interesting. Naturally, I'll be rooting for the man of all men.

~~Bart~~ Ken of course.

Eurobeat playlist go go!!

2008-04-17T13:21:00.003-05:00

The playlist was finally finished about five minutes ago. It took damn near long enough too, for just 100 songs :(

I had the idea for this a few days back and look at how long it has taken me just to finally finish it. Bah. I wish I didn't have to upload 100 songs individually like that, but playlist.com and doesn't know what Eurobeat is, so...oh well. It couldn't be helped.

Anyway, the playlist will be up and running Friday night at 6:00 P.M. CST (-5 GMT) and will be running through the weekend till Monday morning.

Just thought I'd give a heads up about the completion :)

One Piece Episodes 344 & 345

2008-04-17T07:30:00.006-05:00

So apparently, there's not only zombies, but..General Zombies as well (as seen above). There's some peculiar about this General Zombie though. He has the same voice as Brook and even does the same laugh, "Yohohohohoho!", but yet..it doesn't look like Brook at all, so...I'm still waiting to see what the connection is there or at least an explanation behind why he sounds like that and acts like Brook.

Secondly, I wouldn't believe it if someone told me, but seeing it with my own eyes..it's hard to disbelieve. I think I'm starting to understand where the name "Thriller" came from. I would say, "Bark" came from the forest that covers MOST of the island, but never would I have thought I'd see dancing zombies under a strobe light no less (they even sang). I'm really not sure what to say about it, but I will say..it was hard to believe, lol.

Ya know..I kind of feel sorry for Usopp at this point, lol. He gets put up against some of the weirdest things. I mean, honestly...a boxing Kangaroo Zebra? After seeing something like this, I believe I can say, "When watching One Piece, I will never be able to say, "I've seen it all" ". To make matters worse..

we have reason to believe that Sanji was transformed into a zombie dog. Basically, Nami was in a pinch, then this zombie dog came out of nowhere and kicked the zombie that was about to attack Nami, then went on and on about how you should hurt a lady and, "If anybody has a problem with that, then bring it on! Shitty zombies". So many things reminded me of Sanji when the zombie dog spoke, lol. Not to mention, when the rest of the Straw Hat crew had stepped into the mansion, Sanji was suddenly gone, but the zombies inside started laughing as if they knew what had happened to him.

If that is true and he is a zombie dog now, it makes me curious as to how he can be reverted back to a human then. Well, once again..the following episodes should be interesting.

Eurobeat playlist 45% complete

2008-04-16T15:22:00.004-05:00

This really doesn't even NEED a post, but I was bored and felt like it >.>

So yeah..it's going to be kind of close, but I SHOULD have up the Eurobeat playlist Friday night or so. Tales of the Abyss is eating up a lot of my time, so it's hard to make new additions quickly. In any case, I've got about 1 1/2 days left anyway, so I should have enough time :P

Another quick post

2008-04-12T18:11:00.004-05:00

In regards to my previous post, I would like to say I have a full list already formed. I've been working on it for the past hour or so and I have one now. Granted, as I stated before..a few are missing from the list, but regardless..the Eurobeat songs that will be in this playlist are my some of my favorites.

It will take me quite a bit of time to upload all of these songs to add to my playlist, but the playlist will be up by this Friday, the latest..Sunday. The plan is to switch out my current playlist with my Eurobeat playlist for the weekends. I know I stated that in my previous post, but..that's what I have decided to stick with. There is no, "Plan B". This idea sounds best.

In any case, you can look forward to seeing a new playlist next weekend, then I'll return it back to the original one.

Quick post about future addition

2008-04-12T12:07:00.004-05:00

I don't know when it will be ready, but I have started to work on another playlist and it will be completely filled with some of my favorite Eurobeat songs (as if it could fit ALL of my favorites, pfft). I'm thinking about switching the current playlist with that one for weekends or something. I'll come to a definite solution when I get the playlist completed first.

*cracks knuckles*

Time to look through my 10+ GB of Eurobeat and see what's hot and what's not =3

Kaiji Episode 25

2008-04-11T00:53:00.011-05:00

Time to put up some Zawa Zawa goodness in the blog. So I watched the raw of this episode a week or so ago and was absolutely FLOORED by what occurred during the episode. I guess that shouldn't be too surprising though, since Kaiji has a great way of doing such a thing anyway. So, we have reached our next to last episode and things are getting pretty intense with the last gamble. I'd like to see him get out of his with the 120,100,000 yen, but..his surefire plan of winning has collapsed (it's only natural, etc).

The chairman has given him a few conditions to the gamble though. The only real important one you need to know of is that Kaiji is risking four fingers and the 20.1 million yen he currently has in order to have a chance at obtaining 100 million yen. The gamble is simple really. There are multiple small square shaped pieces of paper, with a "o" on it or blank, placed into a tissue box and you must draw one with the "o" since it is a winning lot. Now..before this gamble even took place, Kaiji had already slipped a winning lot into the inside flap of a tissue box, so it was rigged to where he could win rather easily. He would just slip his hand inside, pull it out, then get the 100 million yen. Well...it WAS going to be that easy anyway..until...

the lot had disappeared! The chairman had one of his subordinates shake the tissue box to mix up the lots and the lot Kaiji had placed inside the box must have fell off and went into the pile with the rest of them, so now..the drawing of it is solely based on luck! Kaiji seems to get the shaft pretty often, but to get it in his LAST gamble has to be the worst timing ever. I don't know exactly how he will get out of this one, but I'm pulling for him.

Honestly, the chairman reminds me a lot of Washizu from Akagi. They are both pretty damn sadistic, old, and rich..PLUS have the suits working for them no less. This gamble of trying to find the winning lot reminds me at the end of Akagi when Washizu had to reach into the pond and find the winning tile. Both of these guys look sadistic when reaching for the winning tile/lot. Given they are both Fukumoto works, this isn't surprising really, but I'm impressed he is able to make such similar characters, but make them different at the same time.

Not to mention, the chairman LOVES messing with Kaiji's mind, much like Washizu tried to do with Akagi. I don't mind "mind games" as long as they are well written, which isn't a problem at all with Fukumoto's work. I believe he really knows a lot about how peoples' thought processes work and whatnot. He does a wonderful job at conveying feelings and how people feel at a psychological standpoint in their current situation, which just makes Kaiji all that more interesting (since it involves gambling).

It seems Fukumoto also loves making the last opponent out to be a devil or demon from hell. There was TONS of symbolism shown towards the end of Akagi where Washizu was portrayed as a devil and Akagi was God and in Kaiji, it seems no different. Much like the Washizu mansion, there are religious paintings on the ceiling of where this last gamble is taking place. It looks like something relating to Christianity, but I'm not familiar with that too much, so I couldn't tell what it is, but Kaiji has also been screaming for God these past few episodes when in the beginning of the series, he wasn't really like that. It just really makes me wonder, but once again..Fukumoto loves psychological stuff and symbolism, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was his intent here as well (I mean come on..in this episode, we actually see the chairman open his mouth and something which resembles a poison of some sort comes out in a smoke fashion, like he's some kind of demon..not to mention, look at the screencap, lol).

I went a little crazy with the screencaps, but come on..it's Kaiji. A little Zawa Zawa never hurt anyone :P. Now, let's see if Kaiji can get out of this by keeping his fingers and walk away with the total 120,100,000 yen. I'll definitely post back here after watching the last episode. Now where's my episode 14 of Persona...? *sigh*

EDIT: Also, just a little announcement to any of my readers. I'll be blunt here. It's rather difficult to bounce around an episode without spoiling it, so instead of doing it anyway and warning you about spoilers or apologizing for doing so, I'm going to just say this instead. Please read the title of the post before deciding to read any further.

For example: If you are on episode 137 of One Piece and you see my post about 340, then you would want to scroll past that. If you read that post REGARDLESS of knowing I'll be talking about that episode, then please don't complain to me. That was your own fault.

I'm just kind of tired of trying to keep this spoiler free, since I am not able to fully discuss the episode and have to leave details out, which may be important to understand the post fully. So, from now on, yes, I won't be holding back with my posts and they WILL contain spoilers.

Not that..I really know how many people bother reading this anyway. I don't have many comments...to say the least *sweatdrop*

One Piece Episodes 341 & 342

2008-04-10T03:25:00.008-05:00

Well, I just finished watching episodes 341 and 342 of One Piece and well..in 341, can we say, "Fanservice" ? There was at least 2-4 minutes of just showing multiple angles of Nami's breasts, it was a little ridiculous. We could have just shown one angle, then not bothered with it afterwards, but that was quite a lot of time spent on her being naked (and yes, Usopp got to see, lol).

I can understand in a sense, since a new enemy appeared (kind of) in the middle of her taking a shower. It seems we now have an invisible man on our hands too...and what a wonderful time to be introduced..naturally when Nami is naked, lol. I couldn't get a good shot of him or I'd show him to you guys, but apparently..he can become visible and whatnot, where you only see his clothing, but you can see through his chest. It's completely transparent.

Now what you see here is..yes...a treeman pouring sake for a unicorn. I'm not really sure what to make of it, but the island is weird enough as-is. Usopp and the others got a quick peek at these guys before, but Luffy and his group actually saw this take place and they all gave the reaction of, "*sweatdrop*", then Luffy proceeded to run after the treeman and tackle him. They are really going all out with the "WTF?!" expressions though, lol. I don't really mind..I just think we'll be seeing a LOT of them on this island since..I can't express it enough, but Thriller Bark is pretty weird.

We saw a few ghosts in episode 342 and the group was powerless against them, however..they didn't really cause any sort of physical pain or anything, they just crushed their soul. I know that sounds extreme, putting it like that, but it just went through Luffy's body and he got depressed, then was pissed off later about it, lol. It will be interesting to see how they come up with a way to take care of them though. I STILL can't think of a way to they can take out a ghost, so that should be interesting.

Just for laughs, I decided to screencap this as well. The story behind this is simple actually. During the encounter with the ghosts, two of the members get depressed and Zoro crosses his arms, then says, "You guys are pitiful..letting your soul get crushed like that", then a couple of seconds later, a ghost goes through his body, then he gets on his hands and knees, then says, "I wish I was never born".

Afterwards, while the group is walking along..Sanji says, "I saw something funny", then Zoro says, "Shut up!" and Sanji mimics Zoro and says, "I wish I was never born", then starts laughing hysterically and the Cerberus begins laughing at Zoro as well. It was quite the knee-slapper, seeing Zoro get all embarrassed like that after his, "You guys are pitiful" comment. I'm really looking forward to the next episodes..especially if the arc stays at this quality :)

One Piece Episode 340

2008-04-09T06:43:00.007-05:00

So we are finally in the Thriller Bark arc and it definitely looks promising. I don't know if it will be Skypiea or Enies Lobby material, but it definitely looks like it will be a good one. I'm not sure if they meant to show Usopp as such, but seeing as they are now on an island with undead, his outfit kind of reminds me of Vampire Hunter D actually, lol. There's a LOT of pretty weird stuff on this island though, like Nami's drawing shows a lion she saw, but it had the face of a human and it was stitched up, but still had the mane and much like Usopp, I was screaming, "How is that even possible?!".

Also, for the first time we have encountered zombies in the series. Now I know what some of you are probably thinking. "Oh, wow..zombies...oooooh~". However..we have went through 339 episodes WITHOUT such a concept before, so seeing something like this is refreshing actually, since it STILL manages to be original even this far into the series. This is also why I believe the Thriller Bark arc is promising, since we haven't encountered such a situation like this before and just as an assumption, I'm going to say Luffy is going to learn a new technique during this arc. Now I can't prove this or anything by any means, but I just feel as though he might, since he has never fought an undead enemy or any sort of entity before, so I'm not really sure if he can defeat something like that which proves to be a challenge for him in his current state. Who knows though. It should be interesting, to say the least.

It also seems as though we might get to see some more of our afro skeleton comedian soon as well, which would be nice. I liked what I saw of him so far, so it would be great to see more of him. He's certainly interesting...to say the very least, lol.

Well, I'll make another post once I watch 341 and such. It should be at some point later in the day. It just really depends on how much gameplay I get in Tales of the Abyss :)

Bus Gamer Episode 2

2008-04-08T23:01:00.006-05:00

So I decided to watch the second episode of Bus Gamer, since the first one intrigued me due to the manga. I really liked the manga and thought it was an interesting idea, but honestly..the anime just kind of screams, "BUDGET!!" at me. It feels like there is something missing. It could be the animation or how some things feel thrown together, but..for those who aren't aware of what the plot of Bus Gamer is, I'll give an overview.

In Bus Gamer, a few random people are sent an invitation to participate in a game where tons of money is at stake if you win, however..if you lose, it could mean your life. There are two teams. A home team and an away team. The home team is supposed to protect a disk until the time runs out, using any means necessary. There are no rules outside of that, so you are allowed to use any sort of weapon.

The away team is supposed to retrieve the disk to win the game. Both teams consist of three people (I haven't seen any higher than that anyway). After the first match, the winners are rewarded with 10,000 yen and may stop and leave with that or have a chance at obtaining more. It is stated by the leader of this game that, if you continue playing this game and manage to reach match 15, you can have a chance at winning 1,000,000,000 yen.

If you ever wish to stop playing and walk away with your current winnings or continue on, it doesn't matter if you are a team anymore. In other words, if one of your team members dies during a match, the two remaining members will continue. If you end the game even with one member, it doesn't matter as long as you protect the disk (if you're the home team) or steal the disk (if you're the away team).

The team that is focused on in the anime goes by the name of, "No Name" because two of the members don't want anything to do with each other. The blonde guy (Saitou) is the optimistic one of the group and wishes to be friends and actually act like a team, while the other two just want to be in it for their own gain and want nothing to do with each other. A line which was stated in this episode clearly proved that point. "We're not a team. The only thing holding us together is wanting the money". Nakajou (the black haired guy) is pretty shady, but we know he can fight pretty well with weapons, and he smokes all the time, trying to keep away from the other two for the most part, but as of recently..he has been acting a bit more cooperative, unlike in the beginning.

The last one, Toki (the redhead) is rather mysterious and doesn't speak very much. We get a short flashback of him training in martial arts, but it doesn't really go too much into it at all. We just know he CAN fight. Outside of that, I'll watch the next episode (which is apparently the last) and see how it turns out, but honestly..if they wanted to, they could have just made it a 26 episode series or at LEAST 13, but 3? That's quite a bit rushed and it can be seen easily. They participated in one match during the first episode, which is concluded in episode 2, and in episode 2, they only participate in one match as well, however..we hear one of the members say something along the lines of, "Well, this is the sixth match after all", so I guess they'll just wrap up the next eight matches in the dark during the next episode, then show us the last match of the survivors obtaining the 1,000,000,000 yen.

On a side note, I'd like to say..I did find it amusing that Saiyuki was shown in episode 2 at the arcade. This doesn't really surprise me though, since the creator of Saiyuki was the one who created this as well :P

Update to the blog part 2!

2008-04-08T09:01:00.004-05:00

I didn't feel like editing my previous post any further, so I made a new one. Well, today (and last night >.>) has certainly been busy. I got my playlist up on the blog and filled it up as much as I could, then began thinking about what else I could put on here, then..it hit me! I decided to hunt down a clock of Hatsune Miku, then put it up right underneath my MGS4 timer.

This will probably be my last update to the blog's layout in a while though. It feels a lot better with all of this now and I'm fine with the way things are for the moment. Ah, also..if you click on Miku, she'll give you the time in Japanese and if you click on the little musical note, she'll sing a short verse, then go back to sleep.

Speaking of sleep...that sounds good right about now actually.

*sings a short verse, then goes to sleep*

Update to the blog!

2008-04-07T23:59:00.005-05:00

After a couple of hours, I've finally set up a playlist for my blog. Setting it up was ridiculously easy, but it took me a while to set up the playlist itself with all sorts of music. I hope that I reach out to those will all kinds of interests, since I mixed it up pretty well.

Now to be fair, ~~99%~~ 98% (after the update) of the music is Japanese, aside from the random BGM, but hell..even those songs are made by Japanese people, lol. In any case, the playlist is located at the very bottom of the blog, since if I placed it anywhere else, it would play fine, but..it was cutoff and only showed half of the playlist, so it wouldn't give you the option to scroll through the playlist and select a song yourself.

Right now, I have it on shuffle so you won't hear the same song every time you visit. Well, you will every NOW and then, but not every time :P. I know it looks a little tacky on the bottom of the page like that, but it's really the best position for it. Also, I can't rename the songs or artists, so if you see any mistakes, don't blame me. I couldn't change it even if I wanted to, lol.

Anyway, any comments would be appreciated. In the words of Hideo Kojima:

"Did you rike it?"

Late night edit: After spending about an additional 3-4 hours to add more music to the playlist, my playlist is now full at 100 songs. I didn't get AS much Eurobeat as I wanted to in the playlist, but pfft..I'll just make a separate playlist for that. Enjoy the updated playlist with even more variety. Also, don't forget to comment if you like it or even if you don't :3

Tales of the Abyss rant

2008-04-07T03:13:00.007-05:00

I need to make a quick post about adding a few more hours last night into Tales of the ~~Whining~~ Abyss. Well, I've been playing Unreal Tournament III a lot as of recently, so I decided to take a break from that and catch back up on some ToA. I got about 5 hours in last night, but Christ...those were 5 painful hours.

Was it because I got frustrated at an annoying boss? No, because I'm simply too high of a level for anything to hurt me right now. Was it because I died before reaching the next save point? No, not that either..or was it maybe because I wasn't learning any new specials? Nope.

The hours were actually painful thanks to our lovely main hero..Luke.

The idiot needs to learn how to think for himself. I had to listen to COUNTLESS hours of, "But Master Van said..", "But Master Van..", "I want to see Master Van", "Master Van" this and "Master Van" that. If I had to heard this idiot say it ONE..just ONE more damn time, I would've Master Van'd my head through my television. He relies on that guy for like EVERYTHING. Tear was annoyed with it, Guy was annoyed with it, Jade, you name it..they were annoyed. Hell, I was annoyed along with every one of them.

Basically, it amounted to, "Luke! Why don't you try thinking for yourself for a change?!", then he has the NERVE to yell at everyone and tell them to shut up when given such advice (or any kind of advice, for that matter *sigh*). At the beginning of the game, I laughed off this type of behavior because I thought it was amusing. Now that he still hasn't grown out of it and matured AT ALL...it's rather annoying.

Well, I'm probably about halfway through the game (excluding sidequests, the coliseum, etc.) since I'm 17 hours and some odd amount of minutes into it. I've got quite a few other games on my list I'd like to play. If he keeps whining and keeps this attitude the rest of the way through, I can honestly say..I'll be GLAD to have got this game out of the way so I don't have to put up with this moron anymore.

I should have done it sooner, but seeing as I already have Guy as the character to display when running around, I should seriously consider ditching Luke (despite being the strongest in my group) and making Guy as my main in battle, since he's my favorite. I can sacrifice some strength for some sanity. If it keeps going the way it currently is, I'll be bald before reaching hour 21.

Persona -Trinity Soul- Episode 13

2008-04-06T19:46:00.009-05:00

Ya know..I actually meant to make a post about this last night since I watched it, but I got caught up in a 6 to 7 hour conversation with a friend over AIM, so..needless to say, this post was postponed for a little bit, lol.

I was thoroughly pleased with this episode. It was pretty intense when a particular battle takes place. I've heard a lot of people (even a couple of my friends online) saying this was a rather slow anime, so they decide not to watch it or just stop watching it. Well, I've said it once and I'll say it again...that's because this has a S-T-O-R-Y *gasp*. This anime doesn't tend to rush things and leave you wondering, "What the hell just happened?!". If something unexplained DOES occur, there will be an explanation for it later.

The anime has really been taking the first half of the series to build up the story. Episode 13 was intense because after seeing it, we can really tell things are going to pick up from here. Lots of questions will be answered and we'll find out more about Personas themselves and just exactly what this group is trying to accomplish. There's a good bit of talking, so you have to keep up with what's going on and there's a battle every now and then, so if you're looking for something which is STRICTLY action..this wouldn't have enough to keep you hooked.

I'm really glad my favorite from the series, Ryou (the one on the left) isn't actually the cold hearted bastard anymore though. It looks like he's finally starting to open up to his younger brothers and is being honest with them (yay, he's human after all!). I also enjoyed this episode cause he got a TON of screen time, lol. However..those who are following the series as well will understand why he got so much screen time during this episode. It really left us with a cliffhanger, so I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing 14 when it is released. Keep up the great work, Ainex (It's who I watch them from anyway :P).

That is all!

Legend of the Galactic Heroes 4-3

2008-04-05T23:30:00.012-05:00

As a forewarning, there may be spoilers ahead in my post, since it's kind of hard for me to make a post about something, but just stated, "It was interesting. I'm looking forward to the next episode" and leave it at that, lol. Anyway, moving on.

In this post, I'll be talking a little bit about an anime I have been keeping up with for a little over a year now. After finishing the original series of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, I was quite ecstatic to find out that Central Anime was also going to fansub the sidestories as well, so naturally..I have continued my routine of getting a fair dose of this wonderful sci-fi, war driven, space opera every so often when they release a new episode :)

Tonight, I watched the 3rd episode of the 4th part titled, "One Hundred Billion Stars, One Hundred Billion Lights". Naturally, I was pleased with this episode. We didn't really get to see much of our main character, Reinhard, in this episode..however, I am glad they focused more on the Alliance this episode. I'm interested to see just how well they do against the Imperial forces.

I am also glad to see more of Schenkopp as well, since he's one of my favorites from the Alliance. Also, despite making a very short appearance in this episode..my favorite from the Alliance, Yang Wenli is also seen, making the episode that much more enjoyable :P. Bucock was shown at the end of the episode and they are going to head back to the base as reinforcements, but it really makes me wonder..just how will this battle turn about? Naturally, I'm going for the Empire, but Bucock is pretty damn good..to say the least.

Well, I'm sure Central Anime will have 4-4 out pretty soon, so I'll be looking forward to that, then probably come back here to ramble a little bit about it.

Side Note: Ah, right..seeing as this is my first post about Legend of the Galactic Heroes in my blog, I would like to say..if you are a fan of sci-fi, war stories, and battleships (we're talking like fleets of 500,000+) going against each other in space with a wonderful orchestra score to set the mood just right for the events, then Legend of the Galactic Heroes is definitely something you would want to look into.

The animation looks a little old since it was first running in 1989, but everything is detailed really well (some of the best detailing I have ever seen to date actually). The anime has well over 100+ voice actors, so you won't see any characters looking like H-Joes (the guys without eyes :P), nor will you see the same copy and paste faces. The series is 110 episodes long and not ONCE did I ever notice a decline in the anticipation for the next episode. I was always wanting more. It does an excellent job at pulling you in, but...

this anime would not be for someone who is not willing to keep up with tons of events, dates, and people. There is an immense amount of talking and they may even say something about an event which took place 50 episodes ago or so. I would also consider it a psychological title in a sense as well, since the anime can also help you reflect on real life in some aspects, so it really makes you think at times, not to mention..with all of the strategic planning and tactical discussions in this anime, you'd really have to appreciate all of the talking within the anime to really enjoy it to the fullest.

So, if you don't like an anime with TONS of dialogue, then I would say this isn't for you. For those that DO enjoy such a thing, plus something which depicts war in a very realistic manner (i.e. NOBODY is Superman in this series. Everyone is human, etc), then I would definitely suggest looking into this.

Pre-order placed and blog created!

2008-04-05T06:39:00.001-05:00

Well, I placed my pre-order for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots recently with overnight shipping, so I'll be expecting it the 13th of June, which is a Friday by the way (what a way to kick off the weekend, huh?). I also went hunting for some MGS4 related stuff to put up on my blog to hold me off while I wait, like that neat little countdown timer :)

Ah, well..putting that aside, I have decided to create this blog to possibly begin posting stuff about my life and what goes on within it (nothing interesting of course). I used to have a LiveJournal account, but I didn't know many people on it and I ended up getting rid of all my posts in it anyway (about a year and a half's worth of history, no biggie).

So, basically..I'm here to start anew and see how things go. Most of my posts will probably be random and not really follow any sort of pattern (as in: continuing stories from previous posts, having any sort of relation to anything which has been previously written, etc).

I guess I'll go ahead and update my profile information now since I've finally got my blog the way I want it for the time being.

Let's see how it goes.