Monday, January 31, 2011
P4 Revisited
Hokay, so Skynugget and I aren't as irritated by Persona 4 as we were when we first started. The camera angles are still a source of constant irritation, but we've discovered other aspects of the game that sort of brighten our days.
First of all, you can check the fridge every day. Most of the time there's nothing in there. However, sometimes there are random food (or non-food) objects that you can eat. Once, there was some mysterious grass in the fridge that might have been from the little sister's science project. We ate it. It was great XD
And then there was a slice of ham sitting all alone on a plate. We wanted to eat it, but the game said "Something about it disturbs you. You left it alone." XD
If little sister has gone shopping, you can make lunch for school tomorrow! If you do well, you can share it with your friends and improve your relationship with them. It's pretty great. You also get bait, which you can use for...
Fishing! You can go fishing, if you have enough Diligence, and it's lovely. We've caught 5 fish so far! You can either trade them to the old man for items or use them to restore the HP of your allies, but we haven't tried to do either yet. We hope feeding our allies raw fish doesn't have any ill effects XD
In Persona 3, your stats (like Academics, Charm, and Courage) really didn't have much to do with anything except unlocking ladies and getting good test scores. In P4, you have five attributes (Diligence, Understanding, Knowledge, Courage, and that other one I can't think of off the top of my head). These influence your ability to spend time with people, thus making it so that you can't only work on one friend at a time. They also influence what you can do and what you can say sometimes. Though this might sound irritating to someone who's not familiar with the game, it's actually a nice feature because it lets you pace yourself and forces you to balance between friendships and skills.
There are some lovely new characters and Personas in P4. Who doesn't love a mildly gay blonde macho guy in a bathhouse? This guy is currently our favorite character. The Personas are better balanced in this game, with some formerly crappy Personas getting a revamp (like Pixie being able to use Zio) and formerly godly Personas being more limited. Unfortunately, that last part applied to my former favorite Persona, Oberon- he wasn't nearly as useful this time around. I shall have to find a new favorite. There are also some nice new Personas with interesting skill sets and appearances.
P4 also gets more deeply involved in the personal lives and emotions of the characters. It's nice to have these deep, but not overdramatic characters.
The enemies that you encounter sometimes have similar appearances or features to those from P3, but their weaknesses often aren't the same as they were in the previous game. Some of them, like the Ravens, are still weak to Zio, but many more have no weaknesses, or at least ones that are unexpected. The analysis system in P4 also makes much more sense than it did in P3; P4 records the results of every type of attack you've tried against the enemy, rather than making you wait and then giving you everything.
We have found another character (other than Igor) who has transferred to P4 from P3: Tanaka! Here comes Tanakaaaaaaaaaaa Over the airwaves to youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Great happiness.
One thing that I have found supremely annoying that I didn't mention before is that Yukiko one of the main girl characters) laughs really annoyingly all the freaking time. She even laughs at things that aren't funny! GHH. But we have learned to just skip through her awkward laughter scenes, like I wish I could have skipped the FREAKING AWKWARD LAUGHTER SCENE IN FINAL FANTASY X.
So, in conclusion, concludingly, we like P4 a lot better now that we're into it. All of those little things that the programmers put in there have totally made our days better. Like the disturbing ham. So yeah. We'll keep updating as we play.
I searched "Persona 4 disturbing ham" and came up with this:
Merry afternoon.
~Pigeonmeister
First of all, you can check the fridge every day. Most of the time there's nothing in there. However, sometimes there are random food (or non-food) objects that you can eat. Once, there was some mysterious grass in the fridge that might have been from the little sister's science project. We ate it. It was great XD
And then there was a slice of ham sitting all alone on a plate. We wanted to eat it, but the game said "Something about it disturbs you. You left it alone." XD
If little sister has gone shopping, you can make lunch for school tomorrow! If you do well, you can share it with your friends and improve your relationship with them. It's pretty great. You also get bait, which you can use for...
Fishing! You can go fishing, if you have enough Diligence, and it's lovely. We've caught 5 fish so far! You can either trade them to the old man for items or use them to restore the HP of your allies, but we haven't tried to do either yet. We hope feeding our allies raw fish doesn't have any ill effects XD
In Persona 3, your stats (like Academics, Charm, and Courage) really didn't have much to do with anything except unlocking ladies and getting good test scores. In P4, you have five attributes (Diligence, Understanding, Knowledge, Courage, and that other one I can't think of off the top of my head). These influence your ability to spend time with people, thus making it so that you can't only work on one friend at a time. They also influence what you can do and what you can say sometimes. Though this might sound irritating to someone who's not familiar with the game, it's actually a nice feature because it lets you pace yourself and forces you to balance between friendships and skills.
There are some lovely new characters and Personas in P4. Who doesn't love a mildly gay blonde macho guy in a bathhouse? This guy is currently our favorite character. The Personas are better balanced in this game, with some formerly crappy Personas getting a revamp (like Pixie being able to use Zio) and formerly godly Personas being more limited. Unfortunately, that last part applied to my former favorite Persona, Oberon- he wasn't nearly as useful this time around. I shall have to find a new favorite. There are also some nice new Personas with interesting skill sets and appearances.
P4 also gets more deeply involved in the personal lives and emotions of the characters. It's nice to have these deep, but not overdramatic characters.
The enemies that you encounter sometimes have similar appearances or features to those from P3, but their weaknesses often aren't the same as they were in the previous game. Some of them, like the Ravens, are still weak to Zio, but many more have no weaknesses, or at least ones that are unexpected. The analysis system in P4 also makes much more sense than it did in P3; P4 records the results of every type of attack you've tried against the enemy, rather than making you wait and then giving you everything.
We have found another character (other than Igor) who has transferred to P4 from P3: Tanaka! Here comes Tanakaaaaaaaaaaa Over the airwaves to youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Great happiness.
One thing that I have found supremely annoying that I didn't mention before is that Yukiko one of the main girl characters) laughs really annoyingly all the freaking time. She even laughs at things that aren't funny! GHH. But we have learned to just skip through her awkward laughter scenes, like I wish I could have skipped the FREAKING AWKWARD LAUGHTER SCENE IN FINAL FANTASY X.
So, in conclusion, concludingly, we like P4 a lot better now that we're into it. All of those little things that the programmers put in there have totally made our days better. Like the disturbing ham. So yeah. We'll keep updating as we play.
I searched "Persona 4 disturbing ham" and came up with this:
 |
| That's awful. |
~Pigeonmeister
Rant
So, I played A Bug's Life today.
Let me backtrack and tell you the story of my history with this game.
Way back when I was like sevenish years old (according to my mom), I went to Wisconsin to visit some family. My mom's stepsister was just leaving her teenage years, and she had a Gameboy Color from her youth. I don't remember exactly how it went down, but I know I ended up getting my lovely yellow Pokemon edition Gameboy Color, Pokemon Yellow, and this hideous piece of carp called A Bug's Life.
Mrmrmrmrmrmrmrmr.
All I remember about the first time I played this garbage is that I really, really hated it. I think I only played it once or twice before I put it in my drawer o' stuff and left it to sit there for years while I played Pokemon.
So of course, when I finished Pokemon Blue (finally, after years of giving up in the freaking Seafoam Islands), I figured I'd take another look at the game that made me really really angry.
I wish I hadn't.
The first thing I noticed when I turned on this bucket of kitten poo was that the graphics on the credits looked really, really nice. It was all swirly and sparkly and stuff. "Ooh!", I said to myself, "what have we here? Could I have been wrong all those years ago? Could this be a legit game?"
No.
NO.
The main menu didn't look as good as the initial credits, but still looked passable. Then, there was this hideous purple screen that explained the story. so, my apprehension mounting, I started playing the game.
It didn't let me enter a name, so I couldn't be "Butt$". I couldn't help but feel that I would have been marginally happier with everything had I been able to name my character Butt$, but oh well.
MHHH
So. Basically, this piece o' fiery pigeon is a side-scrolling sort of walking around game. You play as Flik the ant, who walks really freakin' slowly and has a crap jump. You can pick up berries or nuts or something and throw them at enemies, but it's really easy to run out of those, since they're hard to come by. It also doesn't help that the button with which you throw the nuts (B) is the same as the button you use to run, so if you're running into something, you can waste all your nuts (hehe) on a log.
The graphics are... between awesome and mindblowingly suckish. The vines and ground are pretty well detailed. The ground is even kind of amusing at times, because you can see occasional fish skeletons and stuff in it. However,
So I kind of stopped here before the power outage. Luckily, it saved. Now, like 5 days later, I am going to finish the post XD
However, the sky is just plain... cyan. No clouds, no birds, nothing interesting at all! The only bit of unusable scenery is the dandelion, which just sort of waves around.
It's not too difficult to tell where items are and what you can walk on, but it is horribly difficult to actually get onto things. At the end of the first level, there's this mushroom next to an upright, huge-leafed vine. I thought that this jump would be easy, since it was already established that you can jump on the leaves of the vine. However, I just couldn't get on the freakin' mushroom! I tried and tried, but it just didn't work. I swear I jumped THROUGH the mushroom a few times! Irritated, I turned to the Internet. It turns out that every fourth jump is extra high. Wow. I never would have figured that out on my own. Seriously! Thank you, TehY2kar)~!
By the time I found this little nugget of information, I had turned off the game in disgust and left it on a random table in my basement. I haven't yet gone back to it to try the tip, but I will soon. I will finish this infernal game!
But seriously, why create a stupid little feature like that, especially with objects that it looks like you can just jump onto? Come on! Don't make me look silly just standing there jumping! Is this some sort of reference to the movie? Granted, I hated the movie when I was a kid (I hated most Disney movies. And actually most movies in general), so I will probably not know if various features of the game are related to the movie or not. Maybe I should rewatch the movie to form a proper review. Maybe I will, if I'm bored enough. I think I have it on VHS.
Picture of the day: That horrible plot explanation screen. I didn't take this picture, because whenever I try to take pictures of my Gameboy I end up with weird reflections. So I got this from the picture section for the game on GameFAQs.
Have a good day.
~Pigeonmeister
Let me backtrack and tell you the story of my history with this game.
Way back when I was like sevenish years old (according to my mom), I went to Wisconsin to visit some family. My mom's stepsister was just leaving her teenage years, and she had a Gameboy Color from her youth. I don't remember exactly how it went down, but I know I ended up getting my lovely yellow Pokemon edition Gameboy Color, Pokemon Yellow, and this hideous piece of carp called A Bug's Life.
Mrmrmrmrmrmrmrmr.
All I remember about the first time I played this garbage is that I really, really hated it. I think I only played it once or twice before I put it in my drawer o' stuff and left it to sit there for years while I played Pokemon.
So of course, when I finished Pokemon Blue (finally, after years of giving up in the freaking Seafoam Islands), I figured I'd take another look at the game that made me really really angry.
I wish I hadn't.
The first thing I noticed when I turned on this bucket of kitten poo was that the graphics on the credits looked really, really nice. It was all swirly and sparkly and stuff. "Ooh!", I said to myself, "what have we here? Could I have been wrong all those years ago? Could this be a legit game?"
No.
NO.
The main menu didn't look as good as the initial credits, but still looked passable. Then, there was this hideous purple screen that explained the story. so, my apprehension mounting, I started playing the game.
It didn't let me enter a name, so I couldn't be "Butt$". I couldn't help but feel that I would have been marginally happier with everything had I been able to name my character Butt$, but oh well.
MHHH
So. Basically, this piece o' fiery pigeon is a side-scrolling sort of walking around game. You play as Flik the ant, who walks really freakin' slowly and has a crap jump. You can pick up berries or nuts or something and throw them at enemies, but it's really easy to run out of those, since they're hard to come by. It also doesn't help that the button with which you throw the nuts (B) is the same as the button you use to run, so if you're running into something, you can waste all your nuts (hehe) on a log.
The graphics are... between awesome and mindblowingly suckish. The vines and ground are pretty well detailed. The ground is even kind of amusing at times, because you can see occasional fish skeletons and stuff in it. However,
So I kind of stopped here before the power outage. Luckily, it saved. Now, like 5 days later, I am going to finish the post XD
However, the sky is just plain... cyan. No clouds, no birds, nothing interesting at all! The only bit of unusable scenery is the dandelion, which just sort of waves around.
It's not too difficult to tell where items are and what you can walk on, but it is horribly difficult to actually get onto things. At the end of the first level, there's this mushroom next to an upright, huge-leafed vine. I thought that this jump would be easy, since it was already established that you can jump on the leaves of the vine. However, I just couldn't get on the freakin' mushroom! I tried and tried, but it just didn't work. I swear I jumped THROUGH the mushroom a few times! Irritated, I turned to the Internet. It turns out that every fourth jump is extra high. Wow. I never would have figured that out on my own. Seriously! Thank you, TehY2kar)~!
By the time I found this little nugget of information, I had turned off the game in disgust and left it on a random table in my basement. I haven't yet gone back to it to try the tip, but I will soon. I will finish this infernal game!
But seriously, why create a stupid little feature like that, especially with objects that it looks like you can just jump onto? Come on! Don't make me look silly just standing there jumping! Is this some sort of reference to the movie? Granted, I hated the movie when I was a kid (I hated most Disney movies. And actually most movies in general), so I will probably not know if various features of the game are related to the movie or not. Maybe I should rewatch the movie to form a proper review. Maybe I will, if I'm bored enough. I think I have it on VHS.
Picture of the day: That horrible plot explanation screen. I didn't take this picture, because whenever I try to take pictures of my Gameboy I end up with weird reflections. So I got this from the picture section for the game on GameFAQs.
~Pigeonmeister
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Color Theory
I haven't been on here since the dawn of time, so I would like to take time, instead of rebutting everything that crazy woman eagle says, to talk to you about something related to my life but totally not related to this blog. An artist called Color Theory :)
Color Theory, Baby!!!!
Color Theory is an artist classified as electronic indie pop. His name is Brian Hazards, and he started taking music lessons when he was 13. apparently he thinks that's late lol, but I don't care because heck, this music is great. Anyhow, he is a nerd and amazing, with 8 albums out, but he doesn't have a record label. He feels being free like he is now makes the music come better. He's pretty interactive with his fans, I sent him a comment on his youtube page, and the next day I got a friend invite from him! Most of his music is on itunes and pretty official, but some of it he just puts online for the fun of it, and some he even allows download for free!
Oh, but I've babbled enough about the guy himself, though he is a very polite and sweet guy. Let us move to the music!
The first song I ever heard from him was "If It's My Time to Go" and immediately I knew this artist wasn't like any other I had ever listened to. Not only were the lyrics blunt and poetic, they were also honest and sweet. He wasn't harsh with his words, yet by the end of the song I could feel the emotion build up in my chest because accompanied with the soft but powerful piano, the song was perfect. I recently made an amv that can be linked HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfvfJOoL0cc
A lot of his music is like that. However, sometimes he isn't as sweet as this song. The most important factor is that he is always honest with what his feelings are with the song. If he thinks a relationship isn't going to last, he will say so, no beating the bush. There is vivid imagery in a lot of his songs, like in the one "We're Not Getting Any Younger" He specifically recalls a time when it was thundering and he stood with a girl on the top of a lifeguard tower. Man, so detailed and romantic, but he doesn't dramatize any of it, he just makes it come off in that romantic way. The elctronic pop, which i would find annoying in such emotional songs, actually benefit Color Theory. It all matches up so well, I couldn't imagine any element of the songs be removed.
Ok, so the album art kinda freaks me out, but I think's its supposed to be modern "You can't understand it" kind of art. He is not mainstream, so he can have whatever artwork he wants haha. He doesn't have a label either, so he doesn't have someone in his ear going "This looks too weird for the masses!"
Since he is indie, that means he's a bit more unique then everything on the radio lately. But that doesn't mean he's bad or good, it just means he's a different kind of sound, and I just so happen as to adore his sound. Somepeople must also, because one of his songs hit rockband, and that song is pretty good. It's called "If Not Now When" and while there is a small part that rythmically bothers me a bit, I still love the song.
In conclusion, Color Theory has honest and beautiful lyrics, with the electronic piano beat that gets me right here *points to heart* I recommend listening to his album "The Thought Chapter" and his most recent one "The Sound" Ok, NAMINESFRIEND OUT!
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Pokemon Blue, I Love You! (Part 2)
I finished Pokemon Blue today. =D
I beat the Elite Four (and my rival, whom I named Jerk) with the following:
-Lv. 50 Moltres
-Lv. 50 Zapdos
-Lv. 40 Ivysaur
-Lv. 40 Aerodactyl
-Lv. 40 Hypno
-Lv. 40 Gyarados
Of course, pretty much all of them leveled up one during the course of the battle.
I was just going in there as a joke, I didn't expect to win...
It took me for freakin' ever to beat Lance's Dragonite. But I found that it seemed to have a crush on my Ivysaur- it wouldn't attack, but only use status increasing skills like "Agility". So I used Leech Seed and kept getting tiny amounts of HP off it with Razor Leaf. =D
Otherwise, it was pretty much a breeze. My Zapdos (whom I named after my calculus teacher, because he likes birds) was super helpful. One good "Thunder" per nemesis destroyed a whole bunch of Pokemon.
I love being super underleveled when I face a boss. It makes me feel more skilled. =D
Anyway, that's all. This is the first time I have ever beaten Blue version. =D
Next up: that stupid Bug's Life game I hate. I'll name my character Butt$.
~Pigeonmeister
I beat the Elite Four (and my rival, whom I named Jerk) with the following:
-Lv. 50 Moltres
-Lv. 50 Zapdos
-Lv. 40 Ivysaur
-Lv. 40 Aerodactyl
-Lv. 40 Hypno
-Lv. 40 Gyarados
Of course, pretty much all of them leveled up one during the course of the battle.
I was just going in there as a joke, I didn't expect to win...
It took me for freakin' ever to beat Lance's Dragonite. But I found that it seemed to have a crush on my Ivysaur- it wouldn't attack, but only use status increasing skills like "Agility". So I used Leech Seed and kept getting tiny amounts of HP off it with Razor Leaf. =D
Otherwise, it was pretty much a breeze. My Zapdos (whom I named after my calculus teacher, because he likes birds) was super helpful. One good "Thunder" per nemesis destroyed a whole bunch of Pokemon.
I love being super underleveled when I face a boss. It makes me feel more skilled. =D
Anyway, that's all. This is the first time I have ever beaten Blue version. =D
Next up: that stupid Bug's Life game I hate. I'll name my character Butt$.
~Pigeonmeister
 |
| This kind artist saved me the trouble of shopping something for this pun. Thanks! |
Pokemon Blue, I Love You!
My dear, sweet, darling Pokemon Blue:
Today, I woke up with my back hurting, and lying on the floor seemed to help. So I was like, "Well, I'll spend my day lying on the floor." But I soon got tired of looking at the ceiling. and I figured I could play Gameboy while lying on the floor.
So I started playing you, and it was wonderful. My Pokemon were leveling nicely. I was beating wild Pokemon left and right.
And then.
"A wild MAROWAK appeared!"
I couldn't believe it. I didn't even think that was possible. But there I was, on Victory Road, battling a wild Marowak.
I was fighting with my Aerodactyl (who is named Doc Poque, which I think Chelsea will enjoy). I used Fly, which took off about half of the Marowak's HP. This sort of scared me, because I wanted to catch this Marowak, darn it! So I used Wing Attack about five times, shaving off tiny bits of HP.
Then, I decided to use Swift. I figured it wouldn't do much harm, since it's usually weaker than Wing Attack. But it was a critical hit! I looked on in horror as Marowak's HP dropped. My heart beat faster, and I waited for the horrible proclamation that "MAROWAK fainted."
But it didn't come. The Marowak was still alive, with almost no HP! So I used an Ultra Ball, and waited with bated breath as the Pokeball shook, one, two, three times...
"MAROWAK was caught!"
...
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
YES
And ten I saved. And saved again.
So now I have a Marowak, and I'm going to name it Kamina, and we're going to kick butt together. I taught it Strength and Mega Kick, and it also has Bone Club and Focus Energy.
Here begins a new era of epic battling!
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
~Pigeonmeister
RPOTD, from halolz.com through worldbeyblade.org:
Today, I woke up with my back hurting, and lying on the floor seemed to help. So I was like, "Well, I'll spend my day lying on the floor." But I soon got tired of looking at the ceiling. and I figured I could play Gameboy while lying on the floor.
So I started playing you, and it was wonderful. My Pokemon were leveling nicely. I was beating wild Pokemon left and right.
And then.
"A wild MAROWAK appeared!"
I couldn't believe it. I didn't even think that was possible. But there I was, on Victory Road, battling a wild Marowak.
I was fighting with my Aerodactyl (who is named Doc Poque, which I think Chelsea will enjoy). I used Fly, which took off about half of the Marowak's HP. This sort of scared me, because I wanted to catch this Marowak, darn it! So I used Wing Attack about five times, shaving off tiny bits of HP.
Then, I decided to use Swift. I figured it wouldn't do much harm, since it's usually weaker than Wing Attack. But it was a critical hit! I looked on in horror as Marowak's HP dropped. My heart beat faster, and I waited for the horrible proclamation that "MAROWAK fainted."
But it didn't come. The Marowak was still alive, with almost no HP! So I used an Ultra Ball, and waited with bated breath as the Pokeball shook, one, two, three times...
"MAROWAK was caught!"
...
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
YES
And ten I saved. And saved again.
So now I have a Marowak, and I'm going to name it Kamina, and we're going to kick butt together. I taught it Strength and Mega Kick, and it also has Bone Club and Focus Energy.
Here begins a new era of epic battling!
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
~Pigeonmeister
RPOTD, from halolz.com through worldbeyblade.org:
 |
| I searched for "epic Marowak" and got this... |
Saturday, January 22, 2011
The Camera Angles! AHH!!!
So today, Skynugs (henceforth called "Mexwing") and I played Persona 4.
I was expecting freakin' greatness. Mang, Persona 3 is my favorite game in existence, and I will probably love it until the day I die.
Persona 4 is... mixed. There are some things I like, I suppose, but there's really a lot that I don't like.
Let's start with what I don't like, because quite frankly I like to complain.
1. CAMERA FREAKING ANGLES. In Persona 3, there was no camera angle problem. It was always just a moderately far-out shot of Main Character running around. In P4, the camera now seems to get stuck on walls, like it does in Kingdom Hearts. Also, sometimes it randomly zooms in and out. The old one was fine! Why did they change it!?!?! In the 6 hours we spent playing the game today, there were several times when I was trying to get the advantage on an enemy and ended up hitting it blind because I was getting some weird close-up of a wall!
2. Igor. So far, he seems to be the only character that has come over from P3. That would be fine with me, except that I swear some of his lines are reused. Even if they're not the exact same clips, they sure as hell sound almost exactly like all the stuff he told us in the beginning of P3.
3. The absence of Elizabeth. She's been replaced with Margaret, who looks slightly different, but somehow has a voice even more annoying than Elizabeth's. And she pronounces her s's weird on the phone. At one point, when she was explaining her existence to us, Mexwing was like "Shut up already! I'll do you at the end of the game!" (those weren't her exact words, but it was something like that).
4. The repetition and summarization of information. Everything you learn through dialogue in the game is repeated to you by other people, little summaries after each conversation, and usually notifications when you go places or do certain things. It's really irritating! By the time you've heard about the love triangle for what seems to be the fiftieth time, you're like, "Enough already!!!". P3 did a little bit of that, but not to an extreme. P4 takes it too far.
5. Initiative. In P3, it was pretty easy to get the advantage. In P4, it seems to be much harder to aim your sword and takes longer to recover from a swing, so you end up looking like a fool swinging the wrong way and the enemy gets the advantage (which means that all the enemy units get to go first, which can be devastating).
6. Cards. Before, in P3, it was pretty easy to tell their pattern and pretty easy to choose, because you moved the selector around. Now, in P4, the cards move around like electrons around an atom- sort of randomly, and really fast. You have to press X at the right time to select the card on top. It's pretty finicky.
7. So far, there haven't been any return points in the levels. That said, we've only made it to the fifth level of a castle, so that's not too different. I have a feeling it won't be like Tartarus, where it was one big-ass tower with floor bosses and return points. But it was really darn annoying to have to go back down all the stairs instead of being given an access point to return.
All of this said, there are some things I like about this game.
1. Some of the Personas I really liked (such as Angel) have been moved to P4 from P3. Pixie (generally one I never used because I thought she was useless) has even been upgraded, and can now use Zio (lightning) as well as healing. There are also some pretty cool new Personas. I'm interested to see just how many were moved over and how many were newly created as I progress through the game.
2. The battle system. It's got the same basic choices and things as P3's did, but it's better because you can control the actions of each character in your party. Also, it no longer takes a full turn for someone to stand up after it has been knocked down, so you don't get stuck with one character who's weak and always down. This is taking some getting used to for me, though- I used to knock and enemy down and make it take a turn to get up instead of attacking me.
3. The voices are pretty good, even though Vic doesn't have a part. When I was playing P3, I would always let Junpei talk even though I didn't always like what he was saying, just because it was Vic Mignogna's awesome voice! (I always clicked through Yukari's parts, though. Freakin' annoying pink-shirted chick.)
4. The graphics and areas are pretty nice, despite the camera angles.
5. Instead of giving you a difficult-to-see bubble over your character's head when he can look at something or talk to someone, a nice big message that says "X: CHECK" appears.
6. The characters are pretty good. You can see that some of them were drawn in the same style as the characters from P3, and some personality traits carry over, but the characters are mostly different and not direct ripoffs. Also, the main girl character, Chie, is not nearly as annoying as Yukari was in P3. While she does some whining, she also likes kung fu movies, kicks enemies to death, and has a pretty strong Persona (of the Chariot arcana, not the obvious Lovers).
7. All the little things. As in P3, there are lots of random little jokes and things (like being able to eat whatever food is in the fridge, and having the option to say things like "I think I'm about to cry" at totally inappropriate times) that make the game pretty enjoyable and exciting.
Finally, there are some things that mystify me.
1. There's one really really weird character: The Mysterious Bear, aka Teddie. He's this plush guy who performs the same function as Mitsuru (and then Fuuka) did in P3, but he makes weird puns and jokes, and he sometimes says bizarre things. He tends to make weird sound effects, like "*snrk*", and he is easily frightened.
All told, this game is pretty addictive, and a fairly good sequel to my beloved Persona 3. We played for 6 hours yesterday (I started this post yesterday and finished it today), and as soon as my dear Mexwing awakens, I'm going over to her place to play some more. We need to fuse our personas soon. Woo!
I'll update with more things I love and hate, and I'll write an overall review when I finish.
~Pigeonmeister
RPOTD:
That's someone cosplaying Yosuke from P4, in a trash can (which is one of the more randomly funny moments in the game so far). It's from deviantArt, but can be found by a Google search.
I was expecting freakin' greatness. Mang, Persona 3 is my favorite game in existence, and I will probably love it until the day I die.
Persona 4 is... mixed. There are some things I like, I suppose, but there's really a lot that I don't like.
Let's start with what I don't like, because quite frankly I like to complain.
1. CAMERA FREAKING ANGLES. In Persona 3, there was no camera angle problem. It was always just a moderately far-out shot of Main Character running around. In P4, the camera now seems to get stuck on walls, like it does in Kingdom Hearts. Also, sometimes it randomly zooms in and out. The old one was fine! Why did they change it!?!?! In the 6 hours we spent playing the game today, there were several times when I was trying to get the advantage on an enemy and ended up hitting it blind because I was getting some weird close-up of a wall!
2. Igor. So far, he seems to be the only character that has come over from P3. That would be fine with me, except that I swear some of his lines are reused. Even if they're not the exact same clips, they sure as hell sound almost exactly like all the stuff he told us in the beginning of P3.
3. The absence of Elizabeth. She's been replaced with Margaret, who looks slightly different, but somehow has a voice even more annoying than Elizabeth's. And she pronounces her s's weird on the phone. At one point, when she was explaining her existence to us, Mexwing was like "Shut up already! I'll do you at the end of the game!" (those weren't her exact words, but it was something like that).
4. The repetition and summarization of information. Everything you learn through dialogue in the game is repeated to you by other people, little summaries after each conversation, and usually notifications when you go places or do certain things. It's really irritating! By the time you've heard about the love triangle for what seems to be the fiftieth time, you're like, "Enough already!!!". P3 did a little bit of that, but not to an extreme. P4 takes it too far.
5. Initiative. In P3, it was pretty easy to get the advantage. In P4, it seems to be much harder to aim your sword and takes longer to recover from a swing, so you end up looking like a fool swinging the wrong way and the enemy gets the advantage (which means that all the enemy units get to go first, which can be devastating).
6. Cards. Before, in P3, it was pretty easy to tell their pattern and pretty easy to choose, because you moved the selector around. Now, in P4, the cards move around like electrons around an atom- sort of randomly, and really fast. You have to press X at the right time to select the card on top. It's pretty finicky.
7. So far, there haven't been any return points in the levels. That said, we've only made it to the fifth level of a castle, so that's not too different. I have a feeling it won't be like Tartarus, where it was one big-ass tower with floor bosses and return points. But it was really darn annoying to have to go back down all the stairs instead of being given an access point to return.
All of this said, there are some things I like about this game.
1. Some of the Personas I really liked (such as Angel) have been moved to P4 from P3. Pixie (generally one I never used because I thought she was useless) has even been upgraded, and can now use Zio (lightning) as well as healing. There are also some pretty cool new Personas. I'm interested to see just how many were moved over and how many were newly created as I progress through the game.
2. The battle system. It's got the same basic choices and things as P3's did, but it's better because you can control the actions of each character in your party. Also, it no longer takes a full turn for someone to stand up after it has been knocked down, so you don't get stuck with one character who's weak and always down. This is taking some getting used to for me, though- I used to knock and enemy down and make it take a turn to get up instead of attacking me.
3. The voices are pretty good, even though Vic doesn't have a part. When I was playing P3, I would always let Junpei talk even though I didn't always like what he was saying, just because it was Vic Mignogna's awesome voice! (I always clicked through Yukari's parts, though. Freakin' annoying pink-shirted chick.)
4. The graphics and areas are pretty nice, despite the camera angles.
5. Instead of giving you a difficult-to-see bubble over your character's head when he can look at something or talk to someone, a nice big message that says "X: CHECK" appears.
6. The characters are pretty good. You can see that some of them were drawn in the same style as the characters from P3, and some personality traits carry over, but the characters are mostly different and not direct ripoffs. Also, the main girl character, Chie, is not nearly as annoying as Yukari was in P3. While she does some whining, she also likes kung fu movies, kicks enemies to death, and has a pretty strong Persona (of the Chariot arcana, not the obvious Lovers).
7. All the little things. As in P3, there are lots of random little jokes and things (like being able to eat whatever food is in the fridge, and having the option to say things like "I think I'm about to cry" at totally inappropriate times) that make the game pretty enjoyable and exciting.
Finally, there are some things that mystify me.
1. There's one really really weird character: The Mysterious Bear, aka Teddie. He's this plush guy who performs the same function as Mitsuru (and then Fuuka) did in P3, but he makes weird puns and jokes, and he sometimes says bizarre things. He tends to make weird sound effects, like "*snrk*", and he is easily frightened.
All told, this game is pretty addictive, and a fairly good sequel to my beloved Persona 3. We played for 6 hours yesterday (I started this post yesterday and finished it today), and as soon as my dear Mexwing awakens, I'm going over to her place to play some more. We need to fuse our personas soon. Woo!
I'll update with more things I love and hate, and I'll write an overall review when I finish.
~Pigeonmeister
RPOTD:
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Midterms! Vectors! Anime Theme Music!
Today is the second day (it was supposed to be the third, but a lovely inch-thick layer of sleet intervened) of midterms!
It's a chance to prove your knowledge! An opportunity to explore the depths of your brain and your SOUL, GURREN LAGANN!
It sucks.
I haven't had my really hard midterms yet- they're both tomorrow. The two I had today were super easy- Forensics and Computer Science. I finished both of them in half an hour, out of the 100 minute exam period. I've been spending my time after exams trying to do my Calc homework, and making a review sheet for the Calc midterm, and wondering when the Calc problem set is due...
Can you tell that I'm sort of kind of really worried about my Calculus midterm? I've gotten a C on every math midterm I've had since I entered high school. I'm not really sure if I can avoid the same fate this year. However, I am sort of studying, and trying to do my homework, and making lovely detailed study sheets, since we're allowed to have 4 sides of 8.5 x 11 paper with us during the exam.
Of course, my Calc midterm is tomorrow. First thing in the morning. Ghh.
I'm wearing my Mitsuru boots today. Day 2- my feet hurt, but it's not too bad. By the time the convention rolls around, I'll hopefully be used to them. I feel really awkward walking down the hallway in them. They're really loud, and I'm not steady enough in them yet to make a steady clack-clack sound. They make more of a "clack clack tap clack tap clop" sort of inconsistent sound. I can't quite frighten children with my shoes yet.
I do have a review-type thing coming out of this. Really.
Yesterday during my English midterm, I could not get the Soul Eater theme out of my head. It got a bit annoying and distracting at times, but I think I did okay. I love that song, though. It's so perfect for the series- from the fast pace, to the ringing bells, to the staccato , rough voice and the words. When I first heard it at the convention last year, I was immediately struck by how superbly perfect it was.
Another theme that I find absolutely fantastic is the theme for xxxHolic, 19sai by Suga Shikao. It's sort of dark, mysterious, and (time for a completely improper music term) wiggly. I don't really know how to describe it, exactly... I was never that good with music. I played flute for one lone year in fourth grade, then decided that I would never ever play an instrument again. This decision mainly came from the fact that I hated practicing, which still sort of happens to me- I detest studying and practicing things.
Back to anime theme music! For more popular series, there are often multiple theme songs. Naruto and Bleach, for example, have several. To me, this seems to have advantages, namely that you don't get sick of hearing the same old song over and over again. However, this practice also has a disadvantage in that sometimes really really awesome songs are replaced with ones that are far less awesome. For instance, I found "Hero's Come Back" from Naruto to be a pretty great song, and it kept me watching even as I was getting sick of Shippuden. Most of the other Naruto songs, though, (other than "Go") struck me as dull, uninspired, and even irritating.
Of course, some shows have theme songs that are entirely iconic and descriptive of the whole anime- Gurren Lagann's "Sorairo Days", for instance. I adore that song, and it's just so Gurren Lagann that it's wonderful.
I'm not going to talk about character themes here, partly because I'm running out of time (I'm still in Computer Science, lol), partly because I don't feel like it, but mostly because this post is too darn long already.
Ahh! I still have to find a Random Pic Of The Day! (frantically searches My Pictures folder)
Nothing there. (frantically searches Internet)
It's a chance to prove your knowledge! An opportunity to explore the depths of your brain and your SOUL, GURREN LAGANN!
It sucks.
I haven't had my really hard midterms yet- they're both tomorrow. The two I had today were super easy- Forensics and Computer Science. I finished both of them in half an hour, out of the 100 minute exam period. I've been spending my time after exams trying to do my Calc homework, and making a review sheet for the Calc midterm, and wondering when the Calc problem set is due...
Can you tell that I'm sort of kind of really worried about my Calculus midterm? I've gotten a C on every math midterm I've had since I entered high school. I'm not really sure if I can avoid the same fate this year. However, I am sort of studying, and trying to do my homework, and making lovely detailed study sheets, since we're allowed to have 4 sides of 8.5 x 11 paper with us during the exam.
Of course, my Calc midterm is tomorrow. First thing in the morning. Ghh.
I'm wearing my Mitsuru boots today. Day 2- my feet hurt, but it's not too bad. By the time the convention rolls around, I'll hopefully be used to them. I feel really awkward walking down the hallway in them. They're really loud, and I'm not steady enough in them yet to make a steady clack-clack sound. They make more of a "clack clack tap clack tap clop" sort of inconsistent sound. I can't quite frighten children with my shoes yet.
I do have a review-type thing coming out of this. Really.
Yesterday during my English midterm, I could not get the Soul Eater theme out of my head. It got a bit annoying and distracting at times, but I think I did okay. I love that song, though. It's so perfect for the series- from the fast pace, to the ringing bells, to the staccato , rough voice and the words. When I first heard it at the convention last year, I was immediately struck by how superbly perfect it was.
Another theme that I find absolutely fantastic is the theme for xxxHolic, 19sai by Suga Shikao. It's sort of dark, mysterious, and (time for a completely improper music term) wiggly. I don't really know how to describe it, exactly... I was never that good with music. I played flute for one lone year in fourth grade, then decided that I would never ever play an instrument again. This decision mainly came from the fact that I hated practicing, which still sort of happens to me- I detest studying and practicing things.
Back to anime theme music! For more popular series, there are often multiple theme songs. Naruto and Bleach, for example, have several. To me, this seems to have advantages, namely that you don't get sick of hearing the same old song over and over again. However, this practice also has a disadvantage in that sometimes really really awesome songs are replaced with ones that are far less awesome. For instance, I found "Hero's Come Back" from Naruto to be a pretty great song, and it kept me watching even as I was getting sick of Shippuden. Most of the other Naruto songs, though, (other than "Go") struck me as dull, uninspired, and even irritating.
Of course, some shows have theme songs that are entirely iconic and descriptive of the whole anime- Gurren Lagann's "Sorairo Days", for instance. I adore that song, and it's just so Gurren Lagann that it's wonderful.
I'm not going to talk about character themes here, partly because I'm running out of time (I'm still in Computer Science, lol), partly because I don't feel like it, but mostly because this post is too darn long already.
Ahh! I still have to find a Random Pic Of The Day! (frantically searches My Pictures folder)
Nothing there. (frantically searches Internet)
 |
| Aww, cute. This came up when I searched for "Random"... |
Yep. There's a guinea pig in a Santa hat for ya.
Good day (adjusts monocle)
~Pigeonmeister
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Review: Beyond the Law
At a Glance
"Beyond the Law" came out in 1968 and was directed by Giorgio Stegani. It stars Lee Van Cleef as quasi-bandit-I-guess Billy Joe Cudlip, Antonio Sabato as a heroic and seemingly naive European, and Gordon Mitchell as quite possibly the most laughably generic villain ever. Here is a brief summary brought to you by Wikipedia: "After robbing a stagecoach, Billy Joe Cudlip is determined to "go straight", and is named the new sheriff of Silverton. But does he really want the job -- or just access to the valuable shipments of silver?"
Story and Characters
The story of "Beyond the Law" is not the most unique thing in existence; it's essentially a bad guy's struggle between his morals and desire to get rich with his buddies. However, this does not take away from the quality of the storytelling. Van Cleef's character grows and changes when he meets other characters in the story and it is interesting to see how his relationship with his two friends changes from the beginning of the film to the end. That said, the end of the film was bittersweet and (spoiler alert maybe) inconclusive as to Cudlip's choice. The movie is pretty funny, not "Sabata" funny, but the characters are all somewhat exaggerated and share some goofy dialogue. It was also kind of neat to see Van Cleef as an illiterate and disheveled character, a type that I had not seen him play until this movie. As I mentioned earlier, the villain in "Beyond the Law" is very cheesy and over-the-top, but it fits the comical nature of most of the movie.
Filming and Locations
The production quality of "Beyond the Law" seemed pretty high. It's not super artistic, but it looks nice and doesn't have many (if any) visual hiccups that often run rampant in this genre. The fight scenes are a little unconvincing, but that's not a big deal.
Music
Nothing to make a fuss about either way. It fits the movie and that's all it really needs to do.
Overall
"Beyond the Law" starts off slow, but is an enjoyable experience. The characters are fun and the production is solid. Not a tough guy's Spaghetti, but still a good one.
Final Verdict: 4/5
Monday, January 17, 2011
Hot Fuzz Review for Clarinet
 |
| Best part of the movie. |
The first thing that I noticed about this film was the heavy use of fast cuts. I'm not familiar with Edgar Wright's other movies so I don't know if that's just his personal style or what, but it took me a few minutes to get used to them. I'm more used to slow pans, fewer shots, and zooms than the fast-paced filming here. That said, the style is very appropriate for "Hot Fuzz" because of its focus on humor and action. Now about the humor, critics have taken very different stances on how well the jokes actually work. This wasn't the funniest movie to me, but I felt it was at least consistent. I was chuckling throughout the film, so that's good enough for me. I think by watching the movie multiple times you may be able to pick up on more of the subtleties and references - which brings me to another point. Being familiar with cop shows and movies will probably make "Hott Fuzz" a lot funnier.
My favorite thing about this movie was the sort of absurdest humor thrown in, particularly with Timothy Dalton's character Simon Skinner. He had this creepy demeanor, similar to Daniel Day Lewis' portrayal of Daniel Plainview in "There Will Be Blood," but without being unlikeable. He was a terrible person, but still ended up being my favorite character because he was so...weird.
Plot-wise, "Hot Fuzz" succeeds in being a comedy, parody, action, and buddy film, but where it falls short are the small serious scenes that just sort of come out of nowhere. The pacing at the end of the film is also a little confusing, but I really don't know if it could have been done any other way if they wanted to have the same story.
Overall, I'd give "Hot Fuzz" a 4 out of 5. It's a fun movie with some great characters and quality filming, and the subtle humor and action don't overpower one another. Check it out if you haven't seen it.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
TL;DR NEGATIVE 306
*Chelsea's text will be underlined and Clarinet's will be bold. HOT.
So I bought this game on a whim way back when I was in elementary school. I never played the first Rayman game, I just wanted a new game to play. Well, I could never seem to get past the part where you rescued Ly from whatever so I gave up. Here I am a million years later, finally rescuing the ugly butt with Clarinet, and the godforsaken game doesn't save. It would make sense for it to you know, SAVE AFTER AN IMPORTANT EVENT. But no. Apparently it's okay to just keep going without any extra health to help you finish the frodoing level. What's worse is that when you save in the middle of somewhere, it doesn't count it. You're only able to start back at checkpoints and no where in between. AAAGAGGGHHGHGHGHGHHHH. This is a problem I had with Timesplitters: Future Perfect, but at least that game was good.
BLERGH is the phrase I would use to describe this freakin' game. It was so freakin' bad that we started a point system to try to describe how bad it was. Every time something annoyed us, we'd take away points. Every time we liked something, we'd add them. As you can probably tell from the title of this post, the final tally was -306. GHH
Let's make a list of things we hated. It'll be a long long long list.
-CAMERA FREAKIN' ANGLES. They were just hideous.
-The Raymanian language, which was pretty much just muttering and whispering.
-Creepy characters. There's this frog named "Murfy" who whispers creepily at you and invades your thoughts to give you help. His teeth are almost bigger than his face. Chelsea would like to add that they are upsetting and unsavory. Very, very, very upsetting.
-Climbing. It's inconsistent. Sometimes the vines are 2D, sometimes they're 3D, and sometimes you're not even on them at all. Sometimes it just sort of looks like Rayman is hanging in space. I wish he were hanging in space so he'd FALL AND DIE.
-Dying sucks.
-Health boost placement. You get little red fairy things for killing enemies, but they usually don't help too much, and they often don't cover your losses from fighting the enemy. There were zillions of them in the beginning of the game, when there were no enemies, and thus they weren't necessary.
-SAVING. It doesn't work. Chelsea already covered this, but I would like to add my disdain to hers. GHHHHHHHHHHHH
-The level of challenge in this game is bizarre. The enemies are too easy in theory, but with the horrendous camera, it makes them more of a pain to deal with than they should be.
-Rayman's constant need to GRAB THE EDGE OF THINGS is a constant annoyance. I just wanted to drop down somewhere next to a wall so that I could hit a button, but he just kept grabbing the edge. Of course, he only seems to do this when you actually want to drop down. Again because of the bad camera, you sometimes end up falling down into areas that don't even look like places to fall in. SUCKS.
 |
| ADORABLE. |
-The option to have German audio was nice. The Raymanian and English voices suck, so that was a godsend. It was too bad that we couldn't have Italian voices; it was only offered for text.
-Globox's children were really adorable, especially with their German voices.
-WE GOT JUMPING MUSHROOMS. BOUNCY MUSHROOMS. MMMMMMMMMMMM
-The 3D wasn't too terribly awful, especially for 1999, when it came out.
In conclusion, Rayman < EVERYTHING ELSE. Including EyeToy, which we had some serious fun playing this mornin'. Y'all.
IT SUCKS. BYE.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Cosplay Stuff and Black Cat
So we're going to this anime convention in February. I'm going to be cosplaying as Sven from Black Cat (since I already have the costume from last year), and probably also as Mitsuru from Persona 3, because I think she's fantastic.
I'm pretty excited for the convention. What I'm not entirely excited for is the shopping for all of Mitsuru's costume pieces, but oh well. It'll work out. I'm going to the thrift store for the first time tomorrow with some friends. Blergh
So anyway, what I'd like to talk about today is Black Cat, the manga by Kentaro Yabuki. Until I say I'm discussing the anime, I'm discussing the manga, because my perceptions of the two are almost entirely different.
The basic plot revolves around an awesome gunman with a dark past, a now-cheerful fellow named Train Heartnet (also known as the Black Cat, or number XIII). His skills with a gun are unmatched. He works as a sweeper, or someone who hunts down criminals for money, with a partner named Sven Vollfied. Sven is totally awesome. He's cool, he's a ladies' man, and he wears a freakin' fedora, for pete's sake. How much cooler can you get? It also helps that Sven is the techie of the group, frequently producing new types of ammunition for Train and new upgrades to his own personal weapon, his briefcase.
Sven and Train eventually meet up with the two major female characters: a little girl (who also happens to be deadly) named Eve, and a thief named Rinslet Walker. I like the fact that both of them are fairly strong characters (although Rinslet is far weaker than Eve). Though Eve is only a child (of about 11 or so), she develops and uses her powers well, and comes to almost equal Train.
One thing that I really adore about this series is the development of the characters. The pasts of all of the major characters are revealed, and the past stories properly explain the current state of the character. Eve grows throughout the series, and her powers develop. Even the minor characters are usually fairly well explained, and they make sense in the story.
The drawing style is very nice, clear, and easy to follow. There aren't many small details hidden in the panels, as there are in something like Ouran (which I may discuss later).
There's a bit of a lag in the first volume- it mostly just introduces the characters and their world. I would recommend reading it the first time you read the series, but you can probably skip it thereafter. After the first volume, the series moves relatively quickly, and quite a bit of time passes between the first and last (20th) volumes.
At times, the powers and actions of the characters can seem a bit too much, but this isn't too common throughout the series.
There's a lot of comedy involved- there's usually something amusing slipped in with every bit of seriousness. Train, though the main character, also acts as the comic relief a lot of the time. His huge appetite and cheerful disposition cause much hilarity.
Basically, I love this manga, and it is one of the ones I collect. I currently have vols 1-17 (after finally getting vol 14 last week! WOO!).
The anime, however, is a different story. There are so many things about it that completely and totally annoy me.
First off, it's set in a parallel universe or something. The anime never directly says this, but the timing is off. In the manga, when Train and Sven are working together, Train has been out of Chronos for years. In the anime, Train is still in Chronos when he meets and partners with Sven. This is irritating to me, because it throws everything off.
The voices are awful. Abysmal, even. (I'm talking about the English voices here). Sven sounds completely and utterly wrong. It's almost as bad as Kamina's English-dubbed voice, and that's pretty bad.
The art style of the anime is also kind of off. It's more round and cutesy than the manga is. Also, they completely overdo the comedic moments that were subtle in the manga.
Now, a disclaimer: all of my comments ont he anime are based on watching about 5 minutes of the first episode at home by myself (I got sick of it even before the first episode was over), and on half-watching an ep in Anime Club. So, I don't know if it gets better. I don't want to subject myself to the torture of finding out, though, so I won't. If you want to find out for yourself, feel free to do so, but I don't recommend it.
Blergh.
In conclusion: I love Black Cat the manga, and I really wish they had done a better job on the anime. I love Sven's hat, and I can't wait to be him at the convention. Whee!
~Pigeonmeister, from Computer Science
I'm pretty excited for the convention. What I'm not entirely excited for is the shopping for all of Mitsuru's costume pieces, but oh well. It'll work out. I'm going to the thrift store for the first time tomorrow with some friends. Blergh
So anyway, what I'd like to talk about today is Black Cat, the manga by Kentaro Yabuki. Until I say I'm discussing the anime, I'm discussing the manga, because my perceptions of the two are almost entirely different.
The basic plot revolves around an awesome gunman with a dark past, a now-cheerful fellow named Train Heartnet (also known as the Black Cat, or number XIII). His skills with a gun are unmatched. He works as a sweeper, or someone who hunts down criminals for money, with a partner named Sven Vollfied. Sven is totally awesome. He's cool, he's a ladies' man, and he wears a freakin' fedora, for pete's sake. How much cooler can you get? It also helps that Sven is the techie of the group, frequently producing new types of ammunition for Train and new upgrades to his own personal weapon, his briefcase.
Sven and Train eventually meet up with the two major female characters: a little girl (who also happens to be deadly) named Eve, and a thief named Rinslet Walker. I like the fact that both of them are fairly strong characters (although Rinslet is far weaker than Eve). Though Eve is only a child (of about 11 or so), she develops and uses her powers well, and comes to almost equal Train.
One thing that I really adore about this series is the development of the characters. The pasts of all of the major characters are revealed, and the past stories properly explain the current state of the character. Eve grows throughout the series, and her powers develop. Even the minor characters are usually fairly well explained, and they make sense in the story.
The drawing style is very nice, clear, and easy to follow. There aren't many small details hidden in the panels, as there are in something like Ouran (which I may discuss later).
There's a bit of a lag in the first volume- it mostly just introduces the characters and their world. I would recommend reading it the first time you read the series, but you can probably skip it thereafter. After the first volume, the series moves relatively quickly, and quite a bit of time passes between the first and last (20th) volumes.
At times, the powers and actions of the characters can seem a bit too much, but this isn't too common throughout the series.
There's a lot of comedy involved- there's usually something amusing slipped in with every bit of seriousness. Train, though the main character, also acts as the comic relief a lot of the time. His huge appetite and cheerful disposition cause much hilarity.
Basically, I love this manga, and it is one of the ones I collect. I currently have vols 1-17 (after finally getting vol 14 last week! WOO!).
The anime, however, is a different story. There are so many things about it that completely and totally annoy me.
First off, it's set in a parallel universe or something. The anime never directly says this, but the timing is off. In the manga, when Train and Sven are working together, Train has been out of Chronos for years. In the anime, Train is still in Chronos when he meets and partners with Sven. This is irritating to me, because it throws everything off.
The voices are awful. Abysmal, even. (I'm talking about the English voices here). Sven sounds completely and utterly wrong. It's almost as bad as Kamina's English-dubbed voice, and that's pretty bad.
The art style of the anime is also kind of off. It's more round and cutesy than the manga is. Also, they completely overdo the comedic moments that were subtle in the manga.
Now, a disclaimer: all of my comments ont he anime are based on watching about 5 minutes of the first episode at home by myself (I got sick of it even before the first episode was over), and on half-watching an ep in Anime Club. So, I don't know if it gets better. I don't want to subject myself to the torture of finding out, though, so I won't. If you want to find out for yourself, feel free to do so, but I don't recommend it.
Blergh.
In conclusion: I love Black Cat the manga, and I really wish they had done a better job on the anime. I love Sven's hat, and I can't wait to be him at the convention. Whee!
~Pigeonmeister, from Computer Science
 |
| Get it? Train Heartnet? I have awesome Paint skills. XD |
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Epic Win!
Today is a lovely, beautiful, fantastic day!
I won a battle!
Ok, that's a metaphor. Sort of. But I finally found volume 14 of Black Cat, and I'm really really really happy. I've been searching for this frodoing volume for a year and a half. Literally. Every time I went to a book store, I would practically sprint over to the manga section to see if they had it. I was disappointed every time, until today. I walked into Borders, took a deep breath, and said to myself, "Look for Black Cat 14 first. But prepare to be disappointed again." I walked calmly over to the manga section, and THERE IT WAS in all its green glory!!! I really felt like dancing (even though I'm horrible at it. Further down the page I'll tell an amusing related story), but there were a lot of people in the section and so I controlled myself. There was a buy 4 get 1 free deal going on, so I also got vols 1,2,4,5, and 6 of Death Note, vol 18 of Black Cat, and vols 4-6 of Scott Pilgrim. It was lovely. Superbly lovely and wonderful and amazing. I think I might be just a tad obsessed. : )
So yeah, it's supposed to be snowing out, but it's not really doing much. Mostly tiny droplets that you can feel but not see. Earlier, though, there were snowflakes that were literally the size of quarters. It was awesome.
ROAR I'M EXCITED
So I have this tradition when it comes to buying new manga. You know the little plastic bar with a barcode on it that's usually in the middle of your volume, and the sticker that's on the back? I always leave those in until I read the volume for the first time. Then, when I'm done with the volume, I peel them off with a flourish and go YAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Well, maybe not in all caps. But I always smile.
Anyway, here's that awkward dancing story I promised. About two years ago, Skynugget and I were at a party with a DJ. It was actually a pretty awesome party, even though we weren't properly dressed for it (we didn't get the memo). The song "Let it Rock" by Kevin Rudolf and Lil' Wayne came on, and at that time I LOVED that song. So I pulled Skynugget out to dance with me. Well, while we were dancing, I got a little too close to her, and she accidentally hit me in the face. My glasses went flying like five feet in the air, and I fell over. It was hilarious XD
I'm actually wearing that same pair of glasses right now. I guess that incident is just one of the reasons why they're so crooked...
So yeah, that was my wonderful day. Did you have a wonderful day, person who is reading this? Tell me about it. =D
~Pigeonmeister
Can't forget the RPOTD this time:
From tofuttibreak a while ago, I believe.
I won a battle!
Ok, that's a metaphor. Sort of. But I finally found volume 14 of Black Cat, and I'm really really really happy. I've been searching for this frodoing volume for a year and a half. Literally. Every time I went to a book store, I would practically sprint over to the manga section to see if they had it. I was disappointed every time, until today. I walked into Borders, took a deep breath, and said to myself, "Look for Black Cat 14 first. But prepare to be disappointed again." I walked calmly over to the manga section, and THERE IT WAS in all its green glory!!! I really felt like dancing (even though I'm horrible at it. Further down the page I'll tell an amusing related story), but there were a lot of people in the section and so I controlled myself. There was a buy 4 get 1 free deal going on, so I also got vols 1,2,4,5, and 6 of Death Note, vol 18 of Black Cat, and vols 4-6 of Scott Pilgrim. It was lovely. Superbly lovely and wonderful and amazing. I think I might be just a tad obsessed. : )
So yeah, it's supposed to be snowing out, but it's not really doing much. Mostly tiny droplets that you can feel but not see. Earlier, though, there were snowflakes that were literally the size of quarters. It was awesome.
ROAR I'M EXCITED
So I have this tradition when it comes to buying new manga. You know the little plastic bar with a barcode on it that's usually in the middle of your volume, and the sticker that's on the back? I always leave those in until I read the volume for the first time. Then, when I'm done with the volume, I peel them off with a flourish and go YAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Well, maybe not in all caps. But I always smile.
Anyway, here's that awkward dancing story I promised. About two years ago, Skynugget and I were at a party with a DJ. It was actually a pretty awesome party, even though we weren't properly dressed for it (we didn't get the memo). The song "Let it Rock" by Kevin Rudolf and Lil' Wayne came on, and at that time I LOVED that song. So I pulled Skynugget out to dance with me. Well, while we were dancing, I got a little too close to her, and she accidentally hit me in the face. My glasses went flying like five feet in the air, and I fell over. It was hilarious XD
I'm actually wearing that same pair of glasses right now. I guess that incident is just one of the reasons why they're so crooked...
So yeah, that was my wonderful day. Did you have a wonderful day, person who is reading this? Tell me about it. =D
~Pigeonmeister
Can't forget the RPOTD this time:
Review: Between God, the Devil, and a Winchester
At a Glance
"Between" (I really don't want to have to type all the rest out) came out in 1968 and was directed by Marino Girolami (who also directed a movie called "Flying Sex" which I think is a very amusing title for a movie). Anyway, it stars Gilbert Roland as a quasi-outlaw named Juan Chasquisdo, Richard Harrison as Father Pat Jordan, and some kid whose name I don't know as, well, some kid who causes trouble for everyone, basically. Here's a brief synopsis brought to you by IMDB: "A stranger being chased by bandits dies in an accident, but not before he has had a chance to hide a treasure map the bandits wanted. A boy witnesses where it was hidden, retrieves it and passes it on to the local preacher. The preacher recognizes that much of the treasure was likely that from a local mission. He sets out to get it before the bandits find it."
Story and Characters
This movie is less of a Spaghetti Western, and more of a treasure hunt adventure. The story is alright, but it lacks the certain flair that most Spaghettis have. I think one of the main flaws is the way Roland's character was written. For example, there are some great creepy scenes where he is being nice to the young boy, all the while plotting something sinister. Those parts gave his character an edge and made me wonder what he was going to do next. By the end of the movie though, he ends up being just your average drifter. Maybe if there weren't so many other outlaw characters, there could have been some intense scenes with just the preacher and Chasquido. Another problem this movie has is its plot. Well, not the plot as a whole, but more the plot devices that are used to move the story along. A lot of the time it seems like the characters could easily kill each other off and get everything over with. The characters also make very dumb decisions that honestly don't seem realistic. There's a difference between a character being written to make bad decisions, and characters making bad decisions so the movie can progress a certain way. Despite all this, the characters aren't too bad, and I actually really liked the preacher.
Filming and Locations
It's fairly clear that effort was put into filming "Between." There is a wide variety of indoor and outdoor locations, as well as inside a cave. That's pretty cool.
Music
The score isn't the most memorable, but it's still pretty good.
Overall
"Between God, the Devil, and a Winchester" is an average movie. It's paced and filmed well, but lacks that special something that keeps people intrigued. I personally enjoyed "Apache Blood" more because I could at least make fun of how bad it was. If anything, check it out just to see Gilbert Roland, one of the few real Mexicans who had large roles in Spaghetti Westerns.
Final Verdict: 3/5
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Swim Swim Swim Swim Swim Swim YOU BIT MY FINGER
Today Naminesfriend (aka Skynugget) is over at my house. We're supposed to be doing this project about John donne, but once we started dancing to Powerpoint music it was too late. So now we're reviewing Japanese junk food. : )
First up is Pucca. The box says "Pucca: DOUBLE CHOCO PRETZEL"
Key: Naminesfriend- italicize Eagle- mrmrmr
Hey folks! Let's talk about this Pucca product. So needless to say, the chocolate tastes like the chocolate from pocky. big shock, yeah? Not really lol. But you can barely taste the pretzel because of the chocolatey insides of the candy. It is rather decent, and it has different shapes to it sometimes. Most of the time it just looks like a fish, but sometimes you get an octopus in there too! However, there is something you all need to know before buying this product: THEY HALF-A**-ED THE FRODOING CHOCOLATE INSIDES. The first one Eagle bit into had no chocolate inside whatsoever. The second one i bit into had nothing in it either. Zip. Nada. Seriously candy company, WE'RE ONTO YOU!!!!
The end ;)
JK
This is Pigeonmeister, taking back control. Skynugget D<
So yeah, she pretty much said it all. This crap is so inconsistent. It's pretty good when there is actually chocolate cream inside LIKE THE BOX SAYS, but when there isn't it's just hollow and empty and gross like my heart. NO HEART, NO FRIENDS. (that last part was a collaborative effort XD)
So yeah. Now we're going to talk about Pocky.
The internet is a strange place. (facepalm)
Pocky is awesome. It's little thin biscuit sticks dipped in chocolate. Apparently it contains sheanut. Wtfrodo is sheanut?
ANYWAY, it's pretty good. Of course, it's a staple of the otaku diet for no apparent reason. Whenever I run into someone who hasn't had it, I run and find some and force them to eat it. hehe
Pocky is the main part of an Otaku diet because it is featured is so many anime. Mostly it's girls who eat it in anime, them lounging in their rooms doing homework or whatnot, without a bra etc etc, yknow, the stuff guys like haha. as a girl though, I like pocky cuz lol it's good. I first tried pocky oh so many years ago, I think it was either in middle school or freshman year. Anyhow, the moment i bit into the chocolatey goodness, things were never really the same. it's actually quite average for chocolate, but the meaning behind eating pocky is what makes it so delicious. Pocky is rather simple. All it is is a bread stick with chocolate on top of it. So simple, yet so good, you could leisure around with a Pocky in your mouth. Or, run to school and grab a Pocky on your way out. Sharing Pocky with your friends is the best part of this delicacy. Friendship can be started with Pocky yknow :) so in conclusion, Pocky is great, so you should eat it :D
Skynugget and I never finished this together post because we had to finish our project about John Donne. But now that we're done (Donne), I'll finish talking about the other Japanese candies I wanted to talk about. But not in bold print, because it's starting to irritate me.
Some of my favorite Japanese candies of all time are Kasugai gummies. They come in many flavors: kiwi, strawberry, muscat grape, orange, grape, litchi, pineapple, apple, etc. I have never found a flavor I dislike, but mt favorites have to be the kiwi and the muscat grape. All of the gummies are sweet, delicious, and appropriately chewy. They also usually have a nice aftertaste, and are fairly satisfying. Conclusion: get some. Such greatness!
The last yummy treat I would like to discuss is the little jelly cup things. I was trying to explain them to Skynugget earlier, and she was like "Jello shots?" No, my dear bear. No. They're like Jello, but they don't need to be refrigerated, and they sometimes have chunks of fruit or things in them. They can be pretty hard to eat, but they're still pretty good. I've had apple, strawberry, and grape flavored jelly things. Woo
~Pigeonmeister
First up is Pucca. The box says "Pucca: DOUBLE CHOCO PRETZEL"
Key: Naminesfriend- italicize Eagle- mrmrmr
Hey folks! Let's talk about this Pucca product. So needless to say, the chocolate tastes like the chocolate from pocky. big shock, yeah? Not really lol. But you can barely taste the pretzel because of the chocolatey insides of the candy. It is rather decent, and it has different shapes to it sometimes. Most of the time it just looks like a fish, but sometimes you get an octopus in there too! However, there is something you all need to know before buying this product: THEY HALF-A**-ED THE FRODOING CHOCOLATE INSIDES. The first one Eagle bit into had no chocolate inside whatsoever. The second one i bit into had nothing in it either. Zip. Nada. Seriously candy company, WE'RE ONTO YOU!!!!
The end ;)
JK
This is Pigeonmeister, taking back control. Skynugget D<
So yeah, she pretty much said it all. This crap is so inconsistent. It's pretty good when there is actually chocolate cream inside LIKE THE BOX SAYS, but when there isn't it's just hollow and empty and gross like my heart. NO HEART, NO FRIENDS. (that last part was a collaborative effort XD)
 |
| Sometimes it's just SINGLE CHOCO PRETZEL. THE BOX IS A LIE |
The internet is a strange place. (facepalm)
Pocky is awesome. It's little thin biscuit sticks dipped in chocolate. Apparently it contains sheanut. Wtfrodo is sheanut?
ANYWAY, it's pretty good. Of course, it's a staple of the otaku diet for no apparent reason. Whenever I run into someone who hasn't had it, I run and find some and force them to eat it. hehe
Pocky is the main part of an Otaku diet because it is featured is so many anime. Mostly it's girls who eat it in anime, them lounging in their rooms doing homework or whatnot, without a bra etc etc, yknow, the stuff guys like haha. as a girl though, I like pocky cuz lol it's good. I first tried pocky oh so many years ago, I think it was either in middle school or freshman year. Anyhow, the moment i bit into the chocolatey goodness, things were never really the same. it's actually quite average for chocolate, but the meaning behind eating pocky is what makes it so delicious. Pocky is rather simple. All it is is a bread stick with chocolate on top of it. So simple, yet so good, you could leisure around with a Pocky in your mouth. Or, run to school and grab a Pocky on your way out. Sharing Pocky with your friends is the best part of this delicacy. Friendship can be started with Pocky yknow :) so in conclusion, Pocky is great, so you should eat it :D
Skynugget and I never finished this together post because we had to finish our project about John Donne. But now that we're done (Donne), I'll finish talking about the other Japanese candies I wanted to talk about. But not in bold print, because it's starting to irritate me.
Some of my favorite Japanese candies of all time are Kasugai gummies. They come in many flavors: kiwi, strawberry, muscat grape, orange, grape, litchi, pineapple, apple, etc. I have never found a flavor I dislike, but mt favorites have to be the kiwi and the muscat grape. All of the gummies are sweet, delicious, and appropriately chewy. They also usually have a nice aftertaste, and are fairly satisfying. Conclusion: get some. Such greatness!
 |
| Delish! |
~Pigeonmeister
Friday, January 7, 2011
This was supposed to be about something else
I really, really hate iTunes.
Any time I do something accidental or stupid (like accidentally trying to move a playlist OUT OF ALPHABETICAL ORDER. OH NO), it freezes up, and I have to get out of it with the Task Manager.
Recently, it's also been trying to update itself. I have downloaded this update twice. Both times, it just screwed everything up. I had to reinstall iTunes each time. The most recent time this happened, I tried to uninstall it so i could reinstall it. The installing wizard tried to run it and told me that I couldn't run it and had to reinstall it, which is what I was trying to do. Sigh.
The iTunes store is sort of ridiculous. It takes forever to connect and get to where I want it to go. Each page takes a few agonizingly slow seconds to load, reminding me of the days when I sat in my grandmother's computer room and connected to her slow dialup internet with Netscape. Freaking Netscape, mang. iTunes is quite a recent product, thus it should logically be faster, sleeker, and easier to use than all the others. But it's not. It's slow, ridiculous, and irritating.
This infernal program seems to be obsessed with alphabetizing things. Once, I was syncing my iPod Touch with iTunes and it alphabetized my "Good Morning" playlist. Of course, that ruined my specific and carefully planned order. So I deleted "Good Morning" and created "Happiness". But the most recent time I synced my iPod, there was not only "Happiness" but "Happiness 1". I don't know what the difference is, but it's cluttering up my system, mang. It's annoying.
All of this said, though, it's nice to be able to buy music legally from my desk. Also, it's not too hard to create playlists and stuff. I dunno. Blergh.
So basically, I'm avoiding going to sleep. Time to find a random picture o' the evenin'.
I searched for "Tidus unicorn" and this came up:
I'm not sure what this has to do with Tidus, but I like it. It's apparently a money-eating unicorn. I got it from capitolvalley.net.
So yeah, that's about all.
Good night.
~Caroline
Any time I do something accidental or stupid (like accidentally trying to move a playlist OUT OF ALPHABETICAL ORDER. OH NO), it freezes up, and I have to get out of it with the Task Manager.
Recently, it's also been trying to update itself. I have downloaded this update twice. Both times, it just screwed everything up. I had to reinstall iTunes each time. The most recent time this happened, I tried to uninstall it so i could reinstall it. The installing wizard tried to run it and told me that I couldn't run it and had to reinstall it, which is what I was trying to do. Sigh.
The iTunes store is sort of ridiculous. It takes forever to connect and get to where I want it to go. Each page takes a few agonizingly slow seconds to load, reminding me of the days when I sat in my grandmother's computer room and connected to her slow dialup internet with Netscape. Freaking Netscape, mang. iTunes is quite a recent product, thus it should logically be faster, sleeker, and easier to use than all the others. But it's not. It's slow, ridiculous, and irritating.
This infernal program seems to be obsessed with alphabetizing things. Once, I was syncing my iPod Touch with iTunes and it alphabetized my "Good Morning" playlist. Of course, that ruined my specific and carefully planned order. So I deleted "Good Morning" and created "Happiness". But the most recent time I synced my iPod, there was not only "Happiness" but "Happiness 1". I don't know what the difference is, but it's cluttering up my system, mang. It's annoying.
All of this said, though, it's nice to be able to buy music legally from my desk. Also, it's not too hard to create playlists and stuff. I dunno. Blergh.
So basically, I'm avoiding going to sleep. Time to find a random picture o' the evenin'.
I searched for "Tidus unicorn" and this came up:
 |
| Result number 100. Seriously. I counted. |
So yeah, that's about all.
Good night.
~Caroline
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
We Go Hardcore
Today's post is brought to you by Computer Science.
So recently the bear-shaped Nugget (that's Naminesfriend. Just so's ya know) came over to my house, along with Daddy. We were going to watch Hot Fuzz (best movie ever; eventually I'll review it) but because Skynugget hates that movie, we decided to play a lovely PS2 game instead.
DOA: Hardcore!
This game is a pretty good fighting game. Though there are a limited set of characters (12 as opposed to Soul Calibur's 33 plus customs), those characters have a wide variety of moves.
This is not a pure button-mashing game. There is some serious strategy involved. Each character has some holds, which can only be performed under certain circumstances, cause a lot of damage, and are used often by the CPU. I will admit that I haven't really figured out the trick to getting the holds just right; it will take practice. Holds can be used on you when you are blocking, but not when you are attacking, unless the hold is targeting the limb that you are attacking with. I think.
But of course there are kicks and punches and directional attacks and such, which are mostly what I use. You can also block, which is useful when fighting the last boss in every story, who is a creepy guy with wings named Tengu. Everything is his delusion, mang. He never stops reminding you of that. Every time. WE GET IT.
One thing I don't like about this game is that all of the female characters are... too ho-ish. They're hanging out all over the place, their voices are mostly pretty whiny, and they're usually weaker than the male characters (especially the ones with whom they have a previous relationship. Lei Fang has so much trouble fighting Jann Lee, who is her lover or maybe her brother, that it's absolutely ridiculous).
The story of this game really doesn't make any sense. It might help if there were more cutscenes, or maybe if I had the manual. According to Skynugget, the story revolves around a big fighting tournament that everyone is trying to win. The game's Wikipedia page seems to agree with this.
Apparently DOA2 (not Hardcore) was released on the Sega Dreamcast. Interesting- it changed platforms with an update. I had thought that maybe the non-Hardcore version would make a little more sense, but apparently stuff was added, and not much was removed, between the versions.
Oh, and by the way, the girl characters' boobs bounce. Yeah. They made separate movement engines just to get the fanboys goin'. Maybe that's why the girls irritate me so much...
Anyway, here's the picture of the day. It actually made my day. It's from MEN^3, a site with pictures of hot modles and actors (usually Asian ones. Yum ;D ):
That's Won Bin (super cute actor!) carrying a chicken. I'm not really sure what happened here but I like it.
In conclusion: DOA2 Hardcore is a pretty darn good game, Asians and chickens are cute.
~Pigeonmeister
So recently the bear-shaped Nugget (that's Naminesfriend. Just so's ya know) came over to my house, along with Daddy. We were going to watch Hot Fuzz (best movie ever; eventually I'll review it) but because Skynugget hates that movie, we decided to play a lovely PS2 game instead.
DOA: Hardcore!
This game is a pretty good fighting game. Though there are a limited set of characters (12 as opposed to Soul Calibur's 33 plus customs), those characters have a wide variety of moves.
This is not a pure button-mashing game. There is some serious strategy involved. Each character has some holds, which can only be performed under certain circumstances, cause a lot of damage, and are used often by the CPU. I will admit that I haven't really figured out the trick to getting the holds just right; it will take practice. Holds can be used on you when you are blocking, but not when you are attacking, unless the hold is targeting the limb that you are attacking with. I think.
But of course there are kicks and punches and directional attacks and such, which are mostly what I use. You can also block, which is useful when fighting the last boss in every story, who is a creepy guy with wings named Tengu. Everything is his delusion, mang. He never stops reminding you of that. Every time. WE GET IT.
One thing I don't like about this game is that all of the female characters are... too ho-ish. They're hanging out all over the place, their voices are mostly pretty whiny, and they're usually weaker than the male characters (especially the ones with whom they have a previous relationship. Lei Fang has so much trouble fighting Jann Lee, who is her lover or maybe her brother, that it's absolutely ridiculous).
The story of this game really doesn't make any sense. It might help if there were more cutscenes, or maybe if I had the manual. According to Skynugget, the story revolves around a big fighting tournament that everyone is trying to win. The game's Wikipedia page seems to agree with this.
Apparently DOA2 (not Hardcore) was released on the Sega Dreamcast. Interesting- it changed platforms with an update. I had thought that maybe the non-Hardcore version would make a little more sense, but apparently stuff was added, and not much was removed, between the versions.
Oh, and by the way, the girl characters' boobs bounce. Yeah. They made separate movement engines just to get the fanboys goin'. Maybe that's why the girls irritate me so much...
Anyway, here's the picture of the day. It actually made my day. It's from MEN^3, a site with pictures of hot modles and actors (usually Asian ones. Yum ;D ):
In conclusion: DOA2 Hardcore is a pretty darn good game, Asians and chickens are cute.
~Pigeonmeister
Monday, January 3, 2011
Resolutions, but first a word from my sponsor
I have a new deviantart account with the same name I have now, Naminesfriend. Check it out if you want. That Guy also has one, Johnheliomustdie.
so yeah.
Mine isn't as great as hers, because duh, she's a genius artist. and i'm not planning on making these fancy looking, though decent I'll try for. No, these are just comics of my life and drawins i've done and may do. Mostly comics mind you. And they're simple, funny, and a lil pathetic, but they're all true so enjoy them. I Shall update this with a link someday. lol that's the sponsor that isn't really sponsoring anything XD
Anyhow, my Winter Break was fun. I enjoyed time spent with friends and boyfriend and family. I helped out a lot and recieved plenty, and am looking forward to the new year.
This time, I plan on keeping my resolutions for 2011. No. I'm serious. Like, I plan on taking action to do these things. Seriously. I'm serious. I'm not gonna just have resolutions and then forget about them. I'M SERIOUS!
so, just to make sure I do do these things, I am going to write them all down so everybody knows what they are.
First of all, let me state that NONE OF MY RESOLUTIONS ARE TO LOSE WEIGHT. No. I'm done with that crap, I keep saying "I need to lose weight, I gained so much. mrmrmr." No. Instead, I've decided to eat healthy. Not diet, not no eating, I mean like grab an apple instead of a cookie yknow? I'm hopeful this shall give me more energy. I also plan on drinking more water or juice or anything, because I tend to get dehyrdated and need to drink 8 cups a day. Hopefully, this will help me become a better person by giving me a clear mind by having a clear body. yes. that's what i'm going with.
I also want to exercise. and by that, I mean tighten some flab. that's it. so some dancing in the middle of the night or crunches, whatever so long as it gets done. I heard doing exercise in the morning will keep you more awake, so i'll try that cuz i'm always sleepy lol. I can sleep forever if given the opportunity. Ask Eagle, she'll get angry and tell you hahaha
My next resolution is to floss. Because I never floss. And I should floss.
Yeah.
I will also keep my room and school things organuized, so I don't forget homework or not do things because my room or binder is too messy. I will keep time in mind and schedule parts of my life so I don't always have to rush and procrastinate. I WILL DO MY HOMEWORK ON TIME. I will get good grades, which will mean I will study. I won't be so terrified of tests anymore, because I will know the information. I will admit my flaws but also be confident in what I know I'm good at. I will not waiver and stand for what I believe in, even if it may hurt other people. I will be independent and not rely on people so much. I will care about my appearance, but not as much as I do now. I'll indulge in clothing and make-up in moderation, but I will also accept that I look how I look no matter what I do to my hair or face. Putting that aside, I'll like how I look because I look like me and I look great because of that.
I will love who I am because I know I'm pretty great, and shouldn't worry so much if people like me or not. I will however continue to care and worry for others, and help others whenever I can.
Most importantly, I will be happy this year. That is my resolution every year, but it is the goal I will always have, obtain, lose, and then feel I can get all over again. That's life, and I'm proud to say I'll forget about sadness and instead choose to be either "In Pursuit of Happiness" or "Happy". No inbetween. I wil go on happily now, with hope for the future!
THE END!!!!!! BRAND NEW DAYS, LET'S ALL COME TOGETHER AND SUPPORT EACH OTHER YES!
so yeah.
Mine isn't as great as hers, because duh, she's a genius artist. and i'm not planning on making these fancy looking, though decent I'll try for. No, these are just comics of my life and drawins i've done and may do. Mostly comics mind you. And they're simple, funny, and a lil pathetic, but they're all true so enjoy them. I Shall update this with a link someday. lol that's the sponsor that isn't really sponsoring anything XD
Anyhow, my Winter Break was fun. I enjoyed time spent with friends and boyfriend and family. I helped out a lot and recieved plenty, and am looking forward to the new year.
This time, I plan on keeping my resolutions for 2011. No. I'm serious. Like, I plan on taking action to do these things. Seriously. I'm serious. I'm not gonna just have resolutions and then forget about them. I'M SERIOUS!
so, just to make sure I do do these things, I am going to write them all down so everybody knows what they are.
First of all, let me state that NONE OF MY RESOLUTIONS ARE TO LOSE WEIGHT. No. I'm done with that crap, I keep saying "I need to lose weight, I gained so much. mrmrmr." No. Instead, I've decided to eat healthy. Not diet, not no eating, I mean like grab an apple instead of a cookie yknow? I'm hopeful this shall give me more energy. I also plan on drinking more water or juice or anything, because I tend to get dehyrdated and need to drink 8 cups a day. Hopefully, this will help me become a better person by giving me a clear mind by having a clear body. yes. that's what i'm going with.
I also want to exercise. and by that, I mean tighten some flab. that's it. so some dancing in the middle of the night or crunches, whatever so long as it gets done. I heard doing exercise in the morning will keep you more awake, so i'll try that cuz i'm always sleepy lol. I can sleep forever if given the opportunity. Ask Eagle, she'll get angry and tell you hahaha
My next resolution is to floss. Because I never floss. And I should floss.
Yeah.
I will also keep my room and school things organuized, so I don't forget homework or not do things because my room or binder is too messy. I will keep time in mind and schedule parts of my life so I don't always have to rush and procrastinate. I WILL DO MY HOMEWORK ON TIME. I will get good grades, which will mean I will study. I won't be so terrified of tests anymore, because I will know the information. I will admit my flaws but also be confident in what I know I'm good at. I will not waiver and stand for what I believe in, even if it may hurt other people. I will be independent and not rely on people so much. I will care about my appearance, but not as much as I do now. I'll indulge in clothing and make-up in moderation, but I will also accept that I look how I look no matter what I do to my hair or face. Putting that aside, I'll like how I look because I look like me and I look great because of that.
I will love who I am because I know I'm pretty great, and shouldn't worry so much if people like me or not. I will however continue to care and worry for others, and help others whenever I can.
Most importantly, I will be happy this year. That is my resolution every year, but it is the goal I will always have, obtain, lose, and then feel I can get all over again. That's life, and I'm proud to say I'll forget about sadness and instead choose to be either "In Pursuit of Happiness" or "Happy". No inbetween. I wil go on happily now, with hope for the future!
THE END!!!!!! BRAND NEW DAYS, LET'S ALL COME TOGETHER AND SUPPORT EACH OTHER YES!
Rhapsody ~A Musical Adventure~
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! Last week was Winter Break, and so of course I was rather busy. I got a scanner/printer for my comp, and I'm very excited about that. How were your holidays? Mine was wonderful. Along with that present, I recieved many others, but one of my favorites was a game called Rhapsody ~A musical Adventure~ for the DS. This is a review.
Here's some background info concerning this wonderous game:
Rhapsody ~A Musical Adventure~ is a DS game made by Nippon Ichi America, NIS for short. It was originally a playstation game sold around 1980 in japan and 1990 in America. In 2008 they chose to make a DS version of it for America, the date for Japan I dunno lol
Rhapsody is a musical RPG with english vocals on the playstation and japanese vocals for the DS. Don't be mistaken! Seriously, I beat the game this week, and the credits had english names for the vocals, and I was so angry because I wanted english vocals throughout this entire game lol The japanese was ok, it had subtitles of course, but I noticed while humming along that the english translations could be substituted. so. . .yeah. I sang haha
Main story kids!
This is a cute musical rpg about a main character Cornet and her adventure to save her Prince Ferdinand. Cornet is considered a normal orphan girl, but also odd because she can talk to puppets. The main puppet is Kururu, and she can also talk to people. Cornet always had a dream where she falls in love with a prince, and one day in the forest she is saved by such a prince. It was Ferdinand, who she had not seen before, and as she saw him she realized it was the prince in her dream. She then goes out to try and steal his heart through various means, such as cooking and entering the Miss Marl Competition. He is soon captured by a somewhat evil witch called Marjoly, and suddenly Cornet is on a quest to save the prince. That's the jist of it
My Review kids! and more details of course <3
Rhapsody is a pretty cool game by incoperating musical numbers within cutscenes. There are only around 5 to 8 songs though, so I wish there could have been more. There is fighting in this, with the party consisting of Cornet and the puppets that join along the way. She uses a horn, which her mother gave to her a logn time ago. It was said that when the horn is played, wishes can come true, and when she uses the horn she can have puppets join her party so as to help make their wishes come true. When a puppet has their wish come true, which is implied to be their true happiness, their souls can go to heaven. There's also a mini game in the middle of each city or village where Cornet can play the horn when the gamer blows on the DS microphone, and you can get money from it.
The game incorporates a lot of different ways of fighting. magic/special is pretty great, you can even use pancakes against enemies!!! Cornet uses her horn to give support, and that increases her power with music notes. It's really cute. However, the game is more story oriented rather than fight oriented, and is pretty easy to complete. it only took me a week. But as this is an RPG. and it is Nippon Ichi we're talkin about here, there are choices that can effect how parts of the story plays out. In order to help the prince you have to get these stones together so they can take you to Marjoly, so you have to go around and find them. But everybody wants these stones for some reason or another. Sometimes you meet people who want the stone and have to choose to help them or not, or if taking the stone is the right thing to do. It can really effect how people see you. I took the stone once when I really didn't want to, and it turned out the village didn't want me too either! Nobody would talk to me! I went back to my save file and did something different, and the people's reactions were so much better. I think it's really inventive to have actions effect the story.
In the game, you can touch different objects with the stylus, like desks and oranges, and sometimes items are there. This game is really humorous and adorable though, cuz sometimes there are sarcastic remarks! I touched this bookshelf with the stylus one time, and a text box came up saying "You found books in a bookshelf! go figure, I mean what were expecting in a bookshelf. . ." I laughed at this. I found it funny to see text like this. It kept happening too. "You found another bookshelf! This one was really hard to find!" "Look! it's the super-dee-duper-mega-ultra-cool-magnificent-strong horn! Just kidding!" It was really refreshing to see the gamers have fun like that haha
Rhapsody made me happy because it was sweet, innocent, but also gave a few life lessons. I also have sentimental attachment to it because it's in Marl Kingdom, where La Pucelle Tactics takes place as well. La Pucelle Tactics is a game I have for the PS2 that I loved, but the disc doesn't work anymore and I never finished the game. It's why I look for Nippon Ichi games whenever I can (I don't have Disgaea just so you know :P) But I looked Rhapsody up, and it turns out it has a vague connection to La Pucelle.
There is a sequel to this game that isn't out in America, and that game also has a sequel with some secret chapters from the two previous games and etc. The three games together make up the Marl Kingdom Series, all musical RPGs, and very much interwoven into each other and La Pucelle tactics a lil as well. I didn't know this before, but it made me happy to know that.
Overall, the game is cute and light, and I recommend picking it up whenever you have a chance. It's the the greatest fighting game, but the story will keep you going all the way, and the choices you get to make really give you interaction in the game. It's anime style, and wonderful, so yay for Rhapsody ~A Musical Adventure~ !!!
Here's some background info concerning this wonderous game:
Rhapsody ~A Musical Adventure~ is a DS game made by Nippon Ichi America, NIS for short. It was originally a playstation game sold around 1980 in japan and 1990 in America. In 2008 they chose to make a DS version of it for America, the date for Japan I dunno lol
Rhapsody is a musical RPG with english vocals on the playstation and japanese vocals for the DS. Don't be mistaken! Seriously, I beat the game this week, and the credits had english names for the vocals, and I was so angry because I wanted english vocals throughout this entire game lol The japanese was ok, it had subtitles of course, but I noticed while humming along that the english translations could be substituted. so. . .yeah. I sang haha
Main story kids!
This is a cute musical rpg about a main character Cornet and her adventure to save her Prince Ferdinand. Cornet is considered a normal orphan girl, but also odd because she can talk to puppets. The main puppet is Kururu, and she can also talk to people. Cornet always had a dream where she falls in love with a prince, and one day in the forest she is saved by such a prince. It was Ferdinand, who she had not seen before, and as she saw him she realized it was the prince in her dream. She then goes out to try and steal his heart through various means, such as cooking and entering the Miss Marl Competition. He is soon captured by a somewhat evil witch called Marjoly, and suddenly Cornet is on a quest to save the prince. That's the jist of it
My Review kids! and more details of course <3
Rhapsody is a pretty cool game by incoperating musical numbers within cutscenes. There are only around 5 to 8 songs though, so I wish there could have been more. There is fighting in this, with the party consisting of Cornet and the puppets that join along the way. She uses a horn, which her mother gave to her a logn time ago. It was said that when the horn is played, wishes can come true, and when she uses the horn she can have puppets join her party so as to help make their wishes come true. When a puppet has their wish come true, which is implied to be their true happiness, their souls can go to heaven. There's also a mini game in the middle of each city or village where Cornet can play the horn when the gamer blows on the DS microphone, and you can get money from it.
The game incorporates a lot of different ways of fighting. magic/special is pretty great, you can even use pancakes against enemies!!! Cornet uses her horn to give support, and that increases her power with music notes. It's really cute. However, the game is more story oriented rather than fight oriented, and is pretty easy to complete. it only took me a week. But as this is an RPG. and it is Nippon Ichi we're talkin about here, there are choices that can effect how parts of the story plays out. In order to help the prince you have to get these stones together so they can take you to Marjoly, so you have to go around and find them. But everybody wants these stones for some reason or another. Sometimes you meet people who want the stone and have to choose to help them or not, or if taking the stone is the right thing to do. It can really effect how people see you. I took the stone once when I really didn't want to, and it turned out the village didn't want me too either! Nobody would talk to me! I went back to my save file and did something different, and the people's reactions were so much better. I think it's really inventive to have actions effect the story.
In the game, you can touch different objects with the stylus, like desks and oranges, and sometimes items are there. This game is really humorous and adorable though, cuz sometimes there are sarcastic remarks! I touched this bookshelf with the stylus one time, and a text box came up saying "You found books in a bookshelf! go figure, I mean what were expecting in a bookshelf. . ." I laughed at this. I found it funny to see text like this. It kept happening too. "You found another bookshelf! This one was really hard to find!" "Look! it's the super-dee-duper-mega-ultra-cool-magnificent-strong horn! Just kidding!" It was really refreshing to see the gamers have fun like that haha
Rhapsody made me happy because it was sweet, innocent, but also gave a few life lessons. I also have sentimental attachment to it because it's in Marl Kingdom, where La Pucelle Tactics takes place as well. La Pucelle Tactics is a game I have for the PS2 that I loved, but the disc doesn't work anymore and I never finished the game. It's why I look for Nippon Ichi games whenever I can (I don't have Disgaea just so you know :P) But I looked Rhapsody up, and it turns out it has a vague connection to La Pucelle.
There is a sequel to this game that isn't out in America, and that game also has a sequel with some secret chapters from the two previous games and etc. The three games together make up the Marl Kingdom Series, all musical RPGs, and very much interwoven into each other and La Pucelle tactics a lil as well. I didn't know this before, but it made me happy to know that.
Overall, the game is cute and light, and I recommend picking it up whenever you have a chance. It's the the greatest fighting game, but the story will keep you going all the way, and the choices you get to make really give you interaction in the game. It's anime style, and wonderful, so yay for Rhapsody ~A Musical Adventure~ !!!
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