Persona 3 Portable

I am certainly not a stranger to the Persona series, and had already played Persona 3 on my ps2 about two years ago. I’m going to let you know now that what I am reviewing is what I have played of p3p so far as the fmc Minako. Also. I’m listening to the “During the test…” music from the game because it makes me feel productive :D

The Persona franchise made by Atlus is usually composed of the same elements: teenagers fighting while also attending school. In Persona 3, you are the main character who has just arrived to Port Island. You’ll be starting school at Gekkoukan High School. Oh. And you’re parents have been dead for awhile. So yeah, no parental issues. Normal main character. However, as you start school, you begin to realize not all is as it seems, and you soon figure out there is an hour hidden after midnight called the Dark Hour. You, with your high school club known as SEES, must figure out the mysteries of the Dark Hour, the Shadows that appear during the Dark Hour, and the odd place known as Tartarus where the Shadows nest. But don’t worry. You just have to do all this AND catch a few dates while studying as well.

I ran across p3 from a review on X-play, and of course, not listening to them decided to buy the game. Boy. Was I RIGHT not to listen to them. This game has it all. The RPG element is clearly there, as how you interact with people truly does determine how much time it takes for you to progress in a relationship. Then there is a good battle system in which tactics take priority rather than brute strength. There are also other qualities to this game that make it the masterpiece it is: The music composed by Shoji Meguro with vocals by Yumi Kawamura make me so excited about my days, I can’t stop listening to it! The catchy jazz and impressive rapping skills just catch my breath. The story itself is very complex, with multiple twists and gasp moments that will seriously make you consider life itself as you go through this journey with characters you quickly learn to love. God knows I still think about that ending to this day.

However, that is the general review of the game, and I am here to review the portable version. So, on to it I go!!!

I immediately was excited to hear there was an fmc for the portable version, simply because I was a girl and just wanted to get into Shinji’s pants. However, I was a little skeptically when I started going through the game. It seemed they added a few stereotypical comments at the end of the normal conversations from the original game and that was it. An example would be when Ikutsuki adviced me to go to bed, and then finished with “You wouldn’t want to ruin your complexion.” I thought this would happen the entire game, in which case I would have been seriously disappointed in it. Not to mention how differently Junpei treated me now that I was a girl (“You pick her to be the leader??? But, she’s a girl!” omg Junpei come over here, I’ll show you why he picked me over you >:|) However, this quickly changed as they integrated more qualities of a girl into the story development. While I’m never one to like Yukari, I actually got to understand her better as a gal-pal than I ever did as her boyfriend when I was the guy mc (Just TRY talking to her while in a relationship, she is SO ANNOYING.) Also, despite how differently Junpei treated me, I got to learn about his past quicker than I did as the male mc. The story really does change a bit when interacting with people as a female character. I got a new friend from my athletics club, and apparently all the boys want me. Oh boy, which one should I pick??? lalala AKIHIKOSHINJIROAKIHIKOSHINJIRO.

Hahaha, now to get back on subject, let’s go into the fighting gameplay. While in Tartarus, it’s the same deal as before: you go in and fight some baddies until you reach a block, in which you’re finished fighting until the Full Moon battle. However, some of the gameplay has been changed because this is a newer version of the original p3. I’ve also played Persona 4, so I noticed right away how they incorporated some of the battle style from p4 into p3p. You have double team attacks, and when you or an enemy gets knocked down, it doesn’t take a whole turn to get back up. You can also get dizzy if they hit your weak point twice, and vice versa for the enemy. There is also a nifty thing where you can take command of your allies during battle to choose their attacks, which I love OH SO MUCH. Yukari will no longer be acting stupid, thank you very much :D

As this is on the psp, some graphics have been changed. While moving around the island during the day, you no longer get to see your person running about and talking to people. And when events happen, it really is similar to a story-telling game in which you see the scenery, but don’t actually see what is going on. The text tells you if characters move or do some sort of action, but mostly it’s up to the imagination. I’m torn by this, because I was so used to seeing what was happening in the original p3. I quickly adapted though. Plus, it’s much easier to run around town by simply pressing square and choosing where to go.

The new music made just for the fmc is amazing. At first, I totally missed the old music, but once again I adapted and once again couldn’t wait to go to school (That music just makes you WANT to go to school… in game XD) Anyhow, what music I REALLY WANT TO MENTION is the fmc battle music. I love that music. The second I hear it play I went to my comp and downloaded it onto my ipod. Just hearing “I’m not a princess, not a cutie-girlfriend oh no…” made me smile and go “Yeah. That’s awesome.” And then when Misturu threatened Junpei with basically “If you even dare to think about looking down on her just because she’s a woman…” I was all like “Boy. YOU JUST GOT TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD OH SNAP >:D”

Needless to say, Persona 3 is an amazing game, and p3p just adds on to how amazing the storytelling and gameplay is incorporated. Whether girl or boy, you will enjoy yourself with this exceptional game of high caliber.

Star Ocean. . . Apparently This is The Third one :p

Lol, so as I said before, I got Nel back, and I switched to the second disc. Everything is going haywire, people died, and a few questions were left unanswered. By now, I needed to know. Who is Fayt? Why did his father become such a douche? Did they really do all this on purpose? and, most importantly, why did he do it? These questions baffled me, so of course, as Fayt, I left to consult with someone in the military. Cuz that makes so much sense. Haha. To be honest, I've already played waaaaay past this point before, even so far as to the last boss fight, but I wanted to start over and relive the entire experience. I already know the answers to my questions, but it is quite fun to pretend im as oblivious as a nacho cheese pigment within my couch. Which totally doesnt have nacho cheese on it, I swear. Besides,I dont even like nachos all that much. In hindsight, shouldnt it be "Nachoes" instead of "nachos"? Whatever.
As I am acting to be surprised, I go off to talk with the military commodore with the giant earring in an awkward place on his ear. He's black too. And likes to repeat everything I say. And not believe me. Huh. And I used to think he was cool... well at least he's valiant. lols. While I was on his ship, everybody was so excited to see me, said I was the future and whatnot. I had to leave to go to Moonbase after our lil chat with the commodore, involving him talking a lot and me just listening. It was just the small details, nothing too extreme. Oh, Dr. Leingod had some frodoing research, we already searched Moonbase, how could kids find some hidden research when we couldn't find jack. He still let us go, which was pretty cool of him when you think about it.
When I got to Moonbase, I couldn't help but remember what would happen. And I cringed. Because an annoying girl would show up that was in the beginning of the game and I dislike her voice. Her voice is like tiny needles diving into the back of my soul, screaming "BUT I WANT TO COME WITH YOU" and frodo frodo frodo. God, it isn't even funny anymore. At first I could laugh it off, saying things such as "Oh that Square enix, you just couldn't help yourself. Just HAD to have an annoying girl character huh?" Yknow, the Yuffie joke. Which is kinda ironic, cuz I liked Yuffie...
I'm straying from the subject again XD
After all the events of Moonbase, I finally figured out why frodo Leingod did what he did to his son, Maria, and even Sophia. However, I still dont approve of him. He clearly has bad parenting skills. I believe a social worker would have taken Fayt away had he realized what he did. Btw, does ANYBODY ELSE NOTICE That Fayt and Maria both have blue hair? Am I the only one thinking what I'm thinking here?!
Forget it. Clearly, people in this game just don't have that much sensibility. and I BARELY MAKE SENSE HALF THE TIME ANYWAY!!!!
Seriously though, back to the story!
When I got back from moonbase, all of a sudden people stared at me funny and just basically said "We're all gonna die" cuz APPARENTLY, in the short time I was gone, the Executioners just sorta took over and started annihilating world after world, starting with the Vendeeni. haha. I disliked the Vendeeni anyway, simply because they thought they could hide from the Executioners. But, the point is, nobody believed I was a secret weapon, and well, I was determined to prove them wrong. So I told Commodore Earring to take me to Styx, where more mysteries could be solved.
and... well... some shiz went down, ok?
To be continued....

Eden of The East

Sigh. Well. I watched the second movie. And I had a huge amount of-
Oh wait. I should give more detail huh? Haha silly me, I was just so hung up and my emotions went all over the place after watching this movie. Lalala story time story time! STORY. TIME.
About a month ago, I was siting in my bed, awoken by my cat at 8:30. After feeding him, and realizing I can't go back to sleep that easily, I chose to go through some of the anime on ON DEMAND. And lo and below, I pass by a title called eden of the east.
Huh. Where have I heard this name before? I looked through my dusty filing cabinet called a brain, and finally I hit the jackpot. There was a movie at katsucon premiering with that name!!!! I still had the flier with me too. It looked so interesting but I didn't have a chance to see it. Too much goes on at cons and it can make the head spin XD but I have never been one to keep up with the mainstream. It felt exciting to me to watch a very recent anime, so immediately I chose to watch the episode. There wasabout four if the episodes on there, meaning I could a big portion of it. Lol. Man. Was I in for a series.
As the tv blazed, filled with color, and sound spewed from the speakers, I watched a modern opening with a very unusual song. The colors splashed all around, then characters appeared. The beginning of the actual show took place in Washington, dc. In america, which would explain why I would see much diversity within the first five minutes.. and no japanese people until witness a cute girl watching the white house. And suddenly, there usa cute girl main character on the scene.
And then a naked main character with a gun and a phone shows up.
And the show truly begins.
Eden of the east is an anime about a man named takizawa who meets a girl named saki. By chance, causing his and her world to intertwine forever. Takizawa has wiped his memory, remembering nothing of him being a noblesse oblige. He is a part of a game, in which (SPOILER ALERT FOR THOSE WHO JUST STARTED)contestants must use one billion yen to make japan a better place (SPOILER ENDS HERE)
this anime is unique because its rather unconventional. The girl character saki, while still somewhat dependent, tends to contemplate in a profound way that makes me think about life. She is also struggling concerning dependency, which I can relate to. While I also find how she chose to believe in her guts that believed takizawa is a good person admirable, I find it even more admirable how she does not act before thinking in many situations. She understands that there are many mysteries about him, and that what he figures out he js not revealing. She immediately chooses to figure things out herself, and I really respect that in a woman. Its smart. Her outlook on how adults view the younger generation also makes me respect her.
Now, on to the main character. Akira takizawa, the Hawt Hawt HAWT eye candy main character of the series heh. I absolutely adore takizawa because despite the mystery surrounding him, he doesn't make it a big deal. Heda pretty personable guy, happy go lucky, and calm. He makes bad jokes, smiles a lot, and... well he doesn't have anything to be embarrassed about. I mean, he frodoing first appearance was NAKED. Needless to say, he has a good sense if justice and what is right and wrong, even in a japan that is portrayed as corrupt. I like him a lot, and almost everyone can see the potential he has :)
The animation is absolutely beautiful: its a recent anime, so the style is similar many up and coming animus of the twenty first century. Shadowing it distinguished, coloring is modern, yet it has a simplistic feel. NOT a shoujo Manga style. No huge huge eyes or sparkle things, not too showy, but at the same time catches the eye. I like this style that seems to be the most popular. It makes me proud to know that kids today can appreciate the simple style. What's more respectful is that they take advantage of the technology we have today to enhance the style rather than overwhelm it eden of the east features a lot of cg involving very normal actions, like zooming across a hallway or a car driving across town. Though I personally felt there was more cg in the beginning of the series and then slowly disappeared by the end, what they used it for seemed to work well. Now saying that, I have to say how much I hate cg. I always thought it just wasn't necessary from the first time I ever saw it. Which was in avatar the last airbender. But anyway.
I just loved eden of the east. The combination of characters and stories and animation was just great chemistry. Man. The total series contain eleven episodes, along with two movies continuing from the episodes. The second movie is the true final ending. And while I want to spoil the ending, I wont ;) please enjoy this beautiful series, I highly recommend it!

Star Ocean: NEL IS IN MY PARTY YES

It's a party in here yo. Alright, so I have gotten to the second disc of the game, and I derped up XD ill explain, but first I gotta tell you what is going on without entirely spoiling the story.
For the most part of disc 1 there is a certain underdeveloped planet you'll be spending most of your time in. Because of this, you are not allowed to mention how far more advanced you are technologically. Because of this, and no real communications to your technological world, you get to start to feel as though you really are a part of the world. I personally loved Nel zelpher who was basically the first real leading female characters in the game. Sophia in the beginning is basically a kidnapped love interest, go frodoing figure, and Fayt's mother isn't so important until about the second disc. Nel is independent, strong, confident, intelligent, and takes surprises with a calm stride. She is also beautiful, but what makes me love her the most is probably the fact that she prefers her job over men. In fact, I don't even think she cares about these guys XD lol
anyhow, by the end of disc two, a final showdown in this underdeveloped planet went on between this world and a certain entity I am not allowed to disclose without flashing a spoiler alert :p
after this, I excitedly put in disc two, to find that I had to leave the planet. And I was like, ok. Cool. I liked the place, but I guess im ready to move on.
and then I remembered.
Nel.
Nel.
I WAS GONNA HAVE TO LEAVE NEL!!!!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Well, I sobbed, and after awhile I got over the fact that I would just have to deal with having only muscle head hotly, main character, and girl who is small and gun savvy. Sigh. Ok. I was over it then. I was on a ship, it was all futuristic and Hawt,I was all excited to be on this new adventure. But suddenly, im whisked back to the underdeveloped planet.
Here's where I was all derpy and failed XD
before I went back to the underdeveloped planet, I was given the option to move around, save my game, yknow. Normal stuff. Which was rather great, because I needed some items and healing. And as I mentioned, I had two characters left at my side, which is also fine because im only allowed three characters in battle. Normally, I would use maria from the three, but this time I chose to just leave it with Fayt, who was automatically assigned the leader. So I didn't bother going to the menu to do anything. So I went back to the planet, turns out we were tricked, and we have to fight a mini boss fight. I was all like, lols no problem, I still got three level 32 chars.
And then I got to the fight.
And only Fayt was in my party.
..........
To be continued....
Ps. The moral of this story is to always save your game, and to check your menu and party members CAREFULLY.

STAR OCEAN: TILL THE END OR CLOSE TO MINIMAL AMOUNT OF MP

So, I promise to make an X-men Legends continuation blog post sometime in the future, however, I have been playing this really good game that I seriously gotta talk about. Gather round kiddies, this tale will be sure to wet your whistle for awhile XD
Around the beginning of my senior year, I realize that I will be moving away by the end of the year and starting a new life in college. Granted, Ill be bringing my PS2 with me, an as a gamer my feelings for my games will never change, and will influence my life for the rest of my time at college, and forever for that matter. For example, every time I make a new friend and spend time with them, I think to myself "... social rank level increase!" and when I was visiting my college, I couldn't help but think of it like a mini Aquaria. And then, whenever I'm feeling down I just think of Kingdom Hearts, and what would Sora do? All of these are references to different games, each one I have been obsessed with in some point in time. So I decided, in honor of these games, I must finish all of them by the time I go to college. I won't have as much time for games when I get to my classes and homework, so I should at least respect them enough to finish them.
It has been a long year, much has happened, but slowly and enjoyingly enough, I was able to finish game after game. First it was Final Fantasy X, a tear-jerking ending to be sure (ignore all that eagle has said), next my loving boyfriend bought me Xenosaga episode III of the three game saga, and I finished that as well. The ending left me feeling funny, because it was meant to be six games but they had to pack it all into one final game, and it just felt complete but not complete at the same time. oh, KOS-MOS, I'll always love you!!! And of course, my beloved La Pucelle Tactics, also bought by my boyfriend, was a satisfying ending that made me flail about in a most unconventional way. Each game, I shall honor it with a post as well, but give me time kids. For now, settle on the last game I have not finished yet, but am in the process of finishing.
Star Ocean: Till The End of Time, is an older game by Square enix that takes place in the future. It's about a boy named Fayt who must rescue his parents and childhood friend Sophia from the Vendeeni who kidnapped them. However, as he travels between worlds, things get in the way, and some people know more about him than he may know about himself. For this game series, Square chose to take an anime style approach, thus making the graphics somewhat bulky and odd. However, for the time it was made, they are decent enough. Music is ok, battle system is decent enough, but I gotta say. The environmental graphics are rather amazing. It is so creative how much detail they put into describing each world, especially the third world you visit in which a war is raging on between two countries. There's religions, humanoid species, history behind every land, and locations of each world. We have deep character descriptions, and it stays true to an rpg. The way you talk to some characters in certain points in the game will decide how much of each character's ending you get to see by the end of the game. It also decides who will join your party in a later point in the game. This is two discs, the storyline being so complex they kinda had to have two discs. Saying that, I have to complain a bit about the battle system. It is somewhat of a fast battle system, in which you use circle or X as your fighting buttons. There is a menu in which you can use magic, called symbology in this case, and you have hp and mp. or is it sp? well, you get the jist of it. Now, you're allowed to choose which character you want to play as, but the rest are automatic. I am perfectly fine with that. However, you can choose their battle style, making strategy a part of the game. Except, there is no choice to conserve mp!!! so in the middle of a fight I got Maria just shooting out mp like there's no tomorrow, but when it hits that yellow color of halfway to a quarter mp left, she runs off the screen and hides!!!! so I'm forced to use some time to give her a blackberry, which restores mp, on her!! DO YOU KNOW HOW ANNOYING THAT GETS AFTER DOING IT THREE TIMES WITHIN FIVE MINUTES OF A FIGHT????
Actually, other than that, I have no other complaints about this game. but the halfway point dramatic turn in the storyline was pretty bogus. I guess it was supposed to make us look at ourself, but in my case i felt as though they were running out of material and had to go with the most obvious but never truly spoken thing of all. Fayt is like a whiny lil brother, but I adore him cuz he always complains and thinks he knows everything when he knows nothing :D Nel is my favorite, forevermore, no matter what. She is what I want to be when I grow up.
An, that's it for now. Thanks ladies and germs for listening in on my flail whale tale!!!!!

HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF BEANS

Hello kids, I believe I haven't written a post in quite some time, but not to worry! This is a juicy one, as so much has gone on in my absence of this blog. For now, I will help you all out with a review on Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets, for the ps2 for six bucks that my glorious eagle in the sky bought and let me play with her yesterday.
Now, when i first got the text from eagle that I would be coming over, she had already been playing the game, and from what I heard from her, "They all look really weird, the voice acting sucks, and everyone is obsessed with beans!!!" crazy, right? Well, as I have been one to go against that silly eagly who prefers logic over the greatness that is illogic, I had to play this game for myself in order to prove her wrong. Because doing that is fun :D
But, unfortunately, I was unable to do that.
Because, for once in her life, eagle was right.
I know, craaaaaaaaaaazy, right?
Sigh.
Siiigh.
SIGH.
This game was made in 2002, and as the title says, its about harry potter and the chamber of secrets. I have never been one partial to the books, they gave me a headache when i was younger and that just imprinted upon my memory. However, I did sit through the movie, and Eagle has told me a great deal about the books. As with games based on books or movies or both in this case, one would assume that the storyline would be roughly the same as said movie or book or both.
hahaha.
hahahahahaha.
UGH.
This game, as CRAZY as it is, went so far off the plotline that even I knew it was wrong. AND I NEVER READ THE BOOKS. Eagle told me before I came over and played myself she had to, as harry, fight the Weasley's washing machine. She was so offended by this, and i asked her "Oh my flavored eagle, why do you rage so?" and she replied "Because, young and fruitful mother, this was NEVER IN THE BOOKS. THIS DID NOT TRULY HAPPEN." and I thought "Oh dear."
But wait. It gets worse.
Apparently, the currency in this game is beans, ever flavored beans made from a guy who's name starts with a B, but I dont remember what his name was.
hold on, i'm looking for it online right now.
LOADING....
LOADING....
BERTIE BOTTS THATS WHAT IT'S CALLED!!!!
Hey, did I forget to mention how long it takes for each area to load? it's like a full two minutes, no music, and a still picture of hogwarts. It got really annoying when me and Eagle couldn't pass this one section of the game and had to restart the challenge over and over an over again. Plus, the challenged involved us mastering a certain spell expelliarmus that has been noted in the movie to be a disarming charm. However, in the movie its basically used to just reflect a spell back at an opponent. Eagle old me this was extremely wrong, and huffed and puffed and blew the house down!!! After all this crazy madness of wrongitude, an making harry potter fall off the edge of hogwarts (In which i felt deep pleasure from doing >:3), we turned off the game and played portal 2, in which I made eagle get angry in so many ways as well :D
Other things that should be mentioned about harry potter video game is that there is no cultural diversity in the game. Everybody is white. Well... there's this one kid where we can't tell if he's white or not, because the frodoing camera angles just can't give us a break. Oh yeah. camera angles. They suck!!! We get limited amount of control over them, each time we try to change them they go back to where they first were originally. it makes it rather difficult to be sneaky if we cant even see the target area we are supposed to go to!!! also, one highlight of the game I foun was how we have to be sneaky when we go out at night, because harry potter does all his mischevious things at night which totally breaks curfew. Even when he's trying to help his friends out, he never asks for help. How incredibly brave he is :D
That's all for now, this is naminesfriend, telling everyone to play a good THE GAME every once in awhile, and to go to bed earlier!

Bug's Freakin' Life

So I was at a car dealership getting my car maintained and I was really intensely bored. So I played Bug's Life on my GBC.
After reading about that four jumps makes a a higher jump thing, I figured I'd try it out on that infernal mushroom that had been blocking my path. I want y'all to know that I died several times while trying to get up there. That freakin' bee just kept coming back after me! FINALLY by a stroke of luck I made it on top of the mushroom. There was nothing on the other side, so I figured a leap of faith was in order. I jumped down and straight into a pit of water. Really, guys? Really?
So I tried it again. I managed once again to get on top of the stupid mushroom, and I tried to make a leap of faith farther than I previously had. Oh yeah. I jumped right into an enemy. I tried to throw a nut at it but it didn't freakin' work! So I died again. I tried again. I died again. This kept happening until all of my lives were gone. I stared at that freakin' dead ant screen and just turned the damn thing off.
I ended up playing Zombie Farm on my iPod Touch. Now that there is a fun game. You get to grow zombies and attack various locales. You can also grow crops that you can sell for money. As you level, you unlock fun extra things like new zombies, new places to attack, and things that make life easier (like a Speed Monolith, which lets you farm faster).
One of the things I really enjoy about Zombie Farm is the names it gives your zombies. It doesn't let you name them, but gives them weird names like Bruno, Ick, Dirt, and Agatha. Exciting!
It's a game I only really play when I'm on travel or something, because it takes a lot of time to harvest, plow, and reseed a whole farm. Luckily, the game has some crops that don't wither, which enables me to let it sit for a week or a month and still have something to do when I return to the game.
I wish the ant in Bug's Life would become a zombie when it died. That might make the game more interesting.
Random picture of the day (from Purple Slinky):

Kanji would love this bathroom. It would make him feel macho.

~Pigeonmeister