Completed: Ys 4: Memories in Celceta

or as i call it: Celceta

Bias: I love Ys and i love this game.... so.... yeah... if you own a vita buy it
if you don't own a vita and like ys do what i did and buy a vita and Ys....

Thats right... i love Ys enough i consider it a system seller

I am Officially a Falcom Fangirl... i will not be giving an unbiased opinion because i am not capable of it (and you know what.... i don't think anyone really is)

ok so... Story time (i have bolded the point where story time ends):

A while back (over a year i think?) My friend, who knows i like falcom (but maybe at the time didn't realize how much) was like "oh hey, i'm gunna preorder Ys Foliage ocean in celceta (Yes thats it's japanese title) it's the 25th anniversary so it should be full of goodies... too bad it wont come out in english for a while... if at all.... i would lend it to you but you don't own a vita"
all the meanwhile i'm sobbing in my corner.
Okay so he wasn't that mean about it but still... i was super jealous since there was a risk that we may not get it... the Vita has not done too well in North America and Ys is a niche title.

so time passed, occasionally he's send me link to songs from the game and one was Ancient Lore....

and my immediate reaction was "shut up, take my money"... i immediately bought the soundtrack.

then shortly after Xseed announced they would be localizing the game.
now looking at the past the Falcom games almost always come with CDs cause Falcom music is really really good.
so i knew i was probably gunna end up with duplicate songs... (also cause i own Ys 3(normal and super arrange), origin, 1&2 DS version, 7, trails in the sky and.... i think thats it... so yeah... i knew i would have multiples of the same song)
still for a long time there was no mention of a special edition... and i was a little worried cause... well i knew i now had to go buy a vita... and i wanted to buy it for more then just a game... i wanted goodies too~

so i waited...
and waited...
and then said screw it... i know the game store near me may not order many unless they get preorders so i went in and preordered the standard edition
then i waited and hoped for an announcement of a special edition
and eventually that wish came true as well.
3 cds? a cloth map, journal and compass?
it needed to be mine.
but then i had to wait for the preorder to be available in canada...
i swear i mus have been driving the game store near me nuts cause any time i went by it was like "can i preorder now?"
and the response was "what's ease? it's not said Whys?" [ok no but i swear if i went in anymore they would have started trying that shit]

so i get the preorder switched.... and then i had to wait for a release date.

Waiting is so hard... btu no choice.

so the day comes... and no preorder call... i wait.... but then my patience wares thin... i've had them forget to call so i called and asked if it was delayed at all.
"oh, it should be here by the afternoon, latest tomorrow morning, i'll call you right when we get it"
i say thank you and take a deep breath... i can wait just a little long-- *phone rings* "it's here" and then i run out the door.

so i get the game, i get the system and i proceed to not play it... first i do this

cause... i'm girly and red is my fav colour so.... girly red vita... it's only natural.
then i charge it
then i play with some of the extra optoins just to see how they all work
THEN i start to play.

and it was glorious~

HERE IS WHERE I START TALKING ABOUT THE GAME

Ys Celceta, from what i understand, is a remake of both versions of ys 4... Falcom has a history of complicated chronology but this is one of the oddest, Two games are called Ys IV
Ys IV: The Dawn of ys (hudson soft)
Ys IV: Mask of the Sun (tonkin house)

Dawn of Ys was about Adol leaving Minea and looking for the land Celceta overseas
Mask of the Sun is also about adol leaving minea but this time cause he gets a message in a bottle from Celceta askign for help.

and thast all i can get from Wikipedia... i can gather from this game that it pulls more from Mask but changes some things.
this game however doesn't start like that at all.

Adol, Delirious and confused wanders the street, he barely has strength to move... and he can't even remember who he is.
a character who claims to know him is amazed that he managed to leave the forest unharmed since no one had done it before.
of course he is surprised when adol has no idea what he is talking about...
worried that the red headed adventurer would wind up dead he sticks around for a while just to help him get his bearings.... and eventualyl Adol starts getting memories back... but the overall picture seems more complicated then everyone originally thought out.

The game play is like 7 and Alternative saga.
normal attack is square, guard is triangle, Circle is switch character and X is dodge.
you hold R and any of those button to do a special move and L to do a super special move.
where is matches alternative saga is that Adol can talk... you can pick his dialogue options.... if i reply i'll probably go pure snark but this time i played the way i thought adol would respond.
the game is face paced and fun and while the story isn't completely unpredictable it's got it's nice share of plot twists.... and again... the music is some of the best this series has seen... which i didn't think was posible cause 7 and 3 were easily my fav game soundtracks of all time for a while.
also i think this is the first time i've ever beaten a game without ever seeing the game over screen.... i did play this on Normal so it's not that great a feat overall but for me it's an accomplishment.

The good:
i'm a fangirl so everything.... really pretty, really fun and i never wanted to throw the thing i was playign it on [unlike a certain other action rpg i finished playing recently]

The not so good:
the framerate can drop pretty low in some places... it didn't bug me cause it only happened in towns  but if i'm being objective then i guess i should point it out.

the bad:
hm...
something not good...
something.... something.... well i was pretty sure i did everything but i'm still missing a bit of map info... and an artifact... and i think that last memory didn't count as my last memory.... maybe it's in a quest? i did all the ones i could find aside from 2.... i probably will play on nightmare now [cause i'm crazy] and do all that but yeah.... *just checked* okay so i did get all the memories... i need to play a bit more to see if i got the full map

oh i can think of something not good... there is a newgame plus... i wish i had more options for it (like you do in 3)

otherwise the game is really really fun (remember, i'm biased) and i look forward to playing it again while i wait for persona 4 golden to arrive
i guess i could also play the walking dead that came with the system... but i think Ys is more fun.
though i wanna replay 7 now cause of [spoilers]
i would wanan replay 6 but i didn't like it much and still dont own it...
and i do seriously hope that falcom remakes ys 5 cause i know next to nothing about it 9and hope to keep it that way)

so yeah... i'm gunna go back to playing it.... try and get all those trophies [maybe.... probably not]

Completed: The Walking dead - telltale - season1

Nov 28:
So when i went to get my Ps Vita and Ys I noticed that a bundle that came with a game and memory card was way cheaper then just the system itself... and it was a game i knew was really good.

so i ended up with a copy of Telltale's walking dead game.

pretty much everyone agrees that story wise this is an incredibly well done game and considering all the 'branching' paths it's easy to see a little bit of replay value despite this essentially being a on rails vis novel.

thats right... i'm calling it a visual novel, not a point and click... though the two do overlap quick a bit.... it just feels like the gameplay is tangential and this could just as easily be purely 'choose your own adventure' and it would still be a good game.
i actually think it may be a better game.

the controls i'm useing are touch based.... as far as pickng things it's perfect, quick and responsive....
moveing the camera around though... ugh it's not good.
when i think of moving the camera around wiht touch i think of putting my finger in a spot and dragging as if i'm dragging the camera to reach that original spot... in this though the camera will go in the direction you drag.
which got me killed more then once.
granted... i'm not terribly good at any games that fall out of my jrpg and puzzle game niche... so it's probably a good camera system, I just suck.

So far i have finished episode one, i do know the story i mean... it's pretty hard to go into this series blind considering how popular it is... so i decided to play it as true to myself as possible but when options come up like (pick who to save) i pick the opposite of the route i'm used to seeing... so i'm getting some new controls.

my last beef with the game has nothing to do with the game.... i jsut gotta change the power saving settings in my vita cause during cutsceens the screen would darken cause of it... and it got a little irritiatting having to tap the screen every two seconds.

otherwise it looks great and i look forward to playing the rest

Nov 30:
so i finished chapter 2, it felt a bit shorter then chapter one but it was pretty good... possibly because of it being one of the stories in the middle it kind of feels like my choices don't matter as much... mayeb they will have more of an effect in the next one?
this is going to sound odd but i like that there was less 'gameplay'... i mean it's there but there is more focus on the story and characters and that is nice.

Dec 1:
beat chapter 3, this one has a lot more 'gameplay' in the sense that you have to aim and shoot, i found this really frustrating with touch controls but in the end i only died twice so i guess it's not that bad... i'm just not a fan of shooter games. again very few choices felt like they mattered but i really like the story being told so far.
i'll probably beat both chapters tomorrow since i got a memory card big enough to play gravity rush (dear sony, givign me a 4 gb card when your updates take almost all that space is stupid)
also i have person4 coming my way and i'll be getting disgaea 3 soon... so to everyone who said there are no games for vita... yeah i'm finding a way to manage...

Dec 3:
i actually beat chapter 4 yesterday but didn't have a chance to update this. it's one of the longer chapters and finally it feels like all the choices really mattered... i hated the shooting elements cause with the touch controls it was hard to control it and try to get my leg free... otherwise a really good segment.
 Chapter 5 is short, and really sad... but yeah really well done... despite knowing what would happen i couldn't help but tear up, a really well done end to that story.

NOW... i didn't realize but this 'season' includes the bonus chapter 400 days.
so i'll play that later today or tomorrow... i have a commission to work on now so that changes things but i realyl wanna finish this so i can pop in my new/much bigger memory card.

Dec 3 continued:
beat 400 days, a nice and short bonus chapter.... i managed to get everyone to leave with me so i'm curious to see how that affects things.... i will probably wait a while to get season 2 but we'll see, for now i have to change my memory card cause it's pretty full.
but yeah if you like visual novel games this is a really good one... some points are really dark and there doesn't seem to be much to be able to fix that.... but still really well done.

Completed: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

This is a pretty big deal for me... I've never beaten a Zelda game before...
NEVER
so yeah... first time for everything right?

also don't worry i wont spoil anything (though if you have played a Zelda game before... you know the gist of the story)

SO.... where to begin?
this game has great music (though some songs are kinda just... okay... all the remixes are lovely though)
the mechanic of merging into the wall is really fun and creative.
this game is very quick paced with lots to explore and collect.
there are a ton of mini games...
and...
um...
*sighs* okay I'm going to need context for what I'm about to say.

Zelda is unquestionably a fun game, it is a really good game as far as everything is concerned.
um... it just doesn't really click with me.
and looking back... it never has.
i never grew up with it (my first one was OOT and i would have been 8 or 9?) so i don't have that nostalgia factor...

in every Zelda game I've played I've enjoy the world and story but loathed the experience... for whatever reason i don't have fun when i play it. i get really stressed and worked up and when i fail to do something multiple times in a row it starts feeling more cheap then my just being shitty at Zelda.

this game had two moments like that for me... one was cause I'm not patient and any time i have to walk on thin beams i am not happy. icy thin beams that break under you and you have to use fire while standing on and they melt with fire.... yeah... also not happy.
the second time was in the final dungeon, theres a segment were you have to transfer something while using the hookshot to navigate... problem is the thing your transporting also can catch on the hookshot... and you have one of those stupid hand things chasing you so when i tried to get to cover more then once i would catch the thing (despite it being behind me) and i would get sent back to the start of the area and have to try to navigate the thing from the beginning.

when i told my friend how i finally realise I'm just not a fan of the game he wondered how i was able to play Ys since it's 'way harder'
and i didn't have to think too long to give my response. "i have fun when i play Ys"
yes... some bosses *coughchestercough* are stupid difficult and make me want to throw whatever system I'm playing it on but even then... i still find it fun.

now I'm not saying Zelda isn't fun... Zelda is a lot of fun if you like that type of game play.. .apparently i just don't. and hey, I've admitted many times that i have strange taste so it's probably a good sign that I'm not a fan? though saying I'm not a fan sounds like i didn't like the game.. .and i did like it.... just... *sighs*

okay lets try this.
If you like any of the other Zelda games you will love this one
if you like Link to the past it has a lot of nods to that game and plays similarly. (kinda)
if the games have never caught your interest i doubt that this one will change your mind.

oh well.. I know if anyone i know in real life sees this there will be questionings and possibly an intervention followed by forcing me to play all of the Zelda games. I just can't help when something doesn't resonate with me.

okay time to go read the legend of Zelda manga while listening to someone lets play one of the older ones (cause i really like the story and music of the game... just not my cup of tea otherwise)

Completed: The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya

The beginning of a story is a happy accident
The end is the fate for which it's met.

I'm not going to spoil anything that happens in this book, i will simply say that if you liked the anime or the movie you should read this series. it's a lot of fun and goes much farther then the show.

I will be talking about my own personal feelings regarding the series as a whole as well as my fan theories and eventually things i hope/hoped would happen.

but yeah... TL:dr; if you enjoy a snarky protagonist, if you like non-linear story telling, if you like well foreshadowed and hinted at plot lines and if you like trying to read between every line this series is really fun and you should give it a shot. Each book is fairly short but they tell the story they need to tell.

I was first introduced to the show in 2006. I had gone to a friends how and he put on episode 00
and my reaction was something along the lines of "what is this crap.... people watch this?"
he explained that episode 00 was different then the rest and it was supposed to look like that.
i wasn't buying it.
still, not too much later i asked him "hey... what was that show called? i am kinda curious"
and from the first episode i was hooked.
I loved the art, the animation, the story (and more importantly the way the story was told) and when it ended 13 episodes later on episode 6  i was a little sad to see it go.
However it was really popular so i figured it would get another season... i mean the book series had been going for a bit so they had to have more content right?
right?
well
3 years later~
2009, almost everyone had given up hope that we would ever see more of Haruhi Suzumiya's antics but then they started talking about rebroadcasting the show in japan.
Now from my understanding.... Japan doesn't really do reruns, sometimes a show will get a second run but it's really really rare (again, i could be wrong)
so this announcement came as a shock to fans.... and the most curious part was the broadcast schedule.
they were doing the season in chronological order.... and a few episodes in there was a title that only those who read the book knew. "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody"
we were getting our second season... and it was mixed in with the rest of the series to help put it in chronological order.
there was much rejoicing until...
~Endless Eight~
1st time - wow i guess it's possible just to have an episode of them chilling... seems a little pointless but it was cute so no harm.
2nd time - isn't this pretty much the same as last time? i mean the changes are small but... i guess in the next episode they'll fix it cause... well if they go on for 8 then they are pretty stupid.
3rd time - seriously?
4th time - you're really going to drag this out?
5th time - we waited 3 years for this?
6th time - *doing research* this chapter was only 30 pages of the book and we are getting 3ish hours of this shit?
7th time - this is so stupid....
8th time - FINALLY.... and that's all you had to do?! to the person who felt this couldn't be done in 3 or less episodes... i have a few choice words for you.

the rest of the season does make up for the bullshit that was endless eight and is probably one of my fav arcs (next to disappearance, the one on the snowy mountain and all of surprise) but it was at this moment i knew that the creators pretty much hated the fans who had waited.... and that we probably would never get another season cause they would rather spend time on their moe crap.

So far I'm not wrong... we did get a movie based off the disappearance arc and it's probably one of my all time favourite anime movies ever but since there they has been nothing... i don't think anyone is asking either.
So when Kodansha publishing said they were going to publish the light novels in north America i was ecstatic.
FINALLY.... i would get to go beyond the show.
i would get to meet Sasaki and the anti-sos brigade
i would have the chance to see if some of my theories were correct.
and i wouldn't have to worry about the moe crap.

when i ordered it i was sent the manga instead.... which is good and fine but it's not what i wanted... but now i couldn't find the novel at all? had i been mistaken?
had they really just said the manga was the thing they were publishing?
so i went a few years without knowing for sure if we ever got the novel.
one time though i decided i was going to look again cause things were saying it had been published.
i went on my local book stores site and bought all the volumes that were out.
and once again i fell in love with the characters.

Now a quick aside: no matter what i'm reading/watching/playing i consider everything within the series to be canon
even if it contradicts. i figure if it contradict then it's just an alternate telling but it's still canon.... people think i'm weird but as long as the creator doesn't denounce it it's all good in my mind.

so when the book had some minor differences i was a little... confused.

the big one is that Kyon is really good at board games, he beats itsuki every time even when he doesn't really know the rules... and they are always playing games that rely on strategy more then luck. now maybe i just need to rewatch the show (which i plan to do cause i tend to do it every year or so) and be watching to see if he wins or loses but i could have sworn itsuki always beat him in the show.... but NEVER beats him in the book.

the other big difference is on the lonely island murder mystery episode... and i think this change is more censorship then anything else.
In the book Haruhi and Kyon end up plastered, despite being underage and apparently put on quite a show though neither of them remember it. in the anime Haruhi has sworn of drinking for all eternity before the incident.... cause underage kids drinking is frowned upon.

oh and again... endless eight is 30ish pages long and only described the last loop.... because that's all kyon remembers and we are in kyon's head.

other then that the two are very similar... the book just continues on into the next year.

This series always resonated with me... especially kyon, snarky.... stubborn, not as bright as everyone around him (though his brain sure does like to use complex theories from all over the world in every language to make sense of things) Never believes in things like Santa but desperately wishes there were more adventurous things out there like aliens, time travellers and espers... i was totally like that when i was little... so he, as a characters, always hit really close to home and thats probably why he's my favourite male character (tied with natsume, don't make me choose)
so a show that deal with a 'normal' guy going on adventures was just so much fun. a lot of people felt it was stupid and shallow but i promise you nothing that is mentioned in the show is mentioned without being brought up or used later.
not a single thing
even some things you forgot about
they ALL get brought back and used as crucial plot points. 
and i just adore that amount of foreshadowing.
GRANTED.... this is a show i like
and when i like things i have found i have the tendency to.... over analyse...

SO it's time for fan theories... i will keep the spoilers to a minimum but yeah.... i can't keep them out.

1. my first fan theory is that Kyon is actually god.
Haruhi has the godlike powers but Kyon is the one that gives them to her.
evidence:
There is no Santa.... i a world where time travellers, espers and aliens play there is no santa... i am inclined to believe that haruhi would want there to be a fat man delivering presents one day a year but it is certain that he doesn't exist.... because Kyon doesn't believe he exists.... the only things that ever come into reality are the things haruhi and kyon agree on.
all the incidents during filming... haruhi jokes about things the entire shooting process but things like lazer beams out of mikuru's eyes doesn't happen until kyon says "you can't shoot stuff out of your eyes mikuru? can you?" the very instant that he thinks it's possible that haruhi's right she starts firing deadly beams out of her eye.
half the shit in the series is made to entertain kyon.... not haruhi.
big ass cricket in another dimension? haruhi gets bored and figures the problem will fix itself before the adventure even starts despite this being their first case.
the disappearance arc is done solely to make kyon choose... not haurhi.
The lonely island mystery is solved by kyon, not haruhi (though she takes all the credit)
this next piece of evidence is a bit a spoiler.
Sasaki is a candidate for power similar to haruhi... sasaki is kyon's old friend and depending on which he chooses they would have these god like powers...
but if kyon is normal... why would his choice matter?
i, and many others think it's cause he's not normal.
'some' character outright say Haruhi is not god... some characters hint throughout the series that everything focuses on kyon... not her.
and the silliest evidence but hey... it works.
Kyon doesn't have a name
okay he does... but no one knows it. well except Haruhi and Sasaki
Kyon's sister also doesn't have a name
so yeah... next~

2. we, the reader/watcher are the slider.
i think it can be argued that a certain character is the slider BUT i don't think so... i think they were more of a catalyst to split the timeline....
I've also seen it argued that kyon is the slider cause he goes through so many different things while retaining memories but again, (and this is why i mentioned my everything is canon theory) in endless eights novel version he only goes through the last loop... that is all he remembers, a slider would remember all the loops.... however in the show where we aren't so much in his head and more of a 3rd party spectator we remember all the loops... we remember everything he goes through no matter what time or place.
also the order of the shows original airing, as a slider slipping into the episodes in a different order wouldnt' be too hard... the show could essentially be watched in any order at that point...

there is no REAL evidence to back me up on this... i just like my idea that we are a character in the book in a sense that we are observing it. but yeah unlike the thing above i don't actually believe it... just a fun thought experiment.

OK.... spoilers time... sorry..

Things i wish/hoped/hoping would happen in surprise.

i wish i were officially right or wrong... i took is as being proved right but it's not outright said so... still a theory.
i wish he had mentioned his name.....
then i wish he had mentioned his other name (more on this in a second)
i wanna know what that ancient thing he dug up was...

so what i think happened at a certain time in the book is that he gave her the thingy and in the card simply wrote "I am john smith"
but we wont know what he gave her
and we wont know whats in the card (aside from what the others wrote).
but this is what i want to think it was.

also i love her reaction to [too big a spoiler] and it's just like "okay kyon... only you woul be crazy enough to do something like that"


I want a sequel... we see a bit of something and i would love to see that story... but it'll never happen... which is fine... i like having all my little theories.

I am really sad that it's all over... but in the end it's not over at all so that's nice... humans have the power of imagination...
I plan to use it.

First Impressions: Zelda: A link between worlds

time to disclose my personal Bias.
I am not a big fan of zelda games.... but let me clarify.
I suck at zelda games, despite having played a handful of them i have never beaten a zelda game.... cause i'm terrible at them.
I love the music, the designs and the story.... just for a long time Action RPGs and me did not get along at all.

out of the previous zelda games my favs have been Majoras mask and Wind waker.
Majoras mask cause i really like how dark and spooky it got and i loved the time travel ability and Wind waker cause the music is probably the best it's been in the entire series and it's probably the furthest i had gotten in a zelda game (but i was renting it so i never got to beat it)

So what changed?
Ys... i found an action rpg i really enjoyed and now i enjoy a lot of them.
i still suck... but hey.... i have never claimed to be good at video games.

so my first impression of this game?
WOW thats a lot of nostalgia.
nothing wrong with that but it seems like pretty much everything is going to make die hard fans giggle with glee... from obvious things like the sikilarities between the opening of the game to more subtle things like the map pretty much being the same.

the 3d is good, i'm not playing with it on just cause i really dislike 3d in general. i will say that if you leave it on the start screen for a bit a 'animated' cut scene type thing played and the 3d in that is pretty painful... but other then that the rest is fairly well done.

i ADORE how the items are being handled in this game... i'm sure it'll be very expensive later on as i die a crapton but so far i really like being able to have every weapon at your disposal for a fee right off the bat.

the music is... it's good but it's missing something... like some songs are lovely and really add to the atmophere but other times it's almost like it's trying to downplay itself so you don't notice it? i don't know how to describe it but i wish some songs had a bit more of a punch to them.

the bosses are pretty easy (so far) but i'm sure the challenge will build as we get into the second round of 'collect all the things to save the world'

i'm hoping this will be the first zelda game i beat... that would put a chapter of being terrible at zelda behind me (i'll still be terrible... just less terrible)

otherwise i would say you should go pick it up, it's for the 3ds and is really quite fun. maybe one day i'll draw some fanart for it too (though much like the games i've never finished a sketch of anything zelda related... but i haven't tried in over 5 years so who knows... maybe i can now)


also Surprise of haruhi suzumiya just arrived and so i should be done that soon... hopefully before tuesday....

Aventures in Dinner

I don't normally 'blog' about food cause... well i'm probably one of the pickiest eaters out there... i almost never go out and get food cause even if i like what it is... if it has MSG in it i'm ill for days... it's just too risky.

still my little brother LOVES fast food, more specifically he loves when coupons are sent in the mail for deals on fast food and will hound us constantly till we cave and take him to try whatever deal they are promoting.

this time it was for a chicken place that isn't terribly well known and therefor we had never gone there.
so we arrive and there are about 8 other people there, all carbon copies of each other... it was a little surreal.

so we 'wait' but there no marker of "this is the line" and everyone seems confused.
we realize the reason for the wait is that most of the time there was only one cashier at the front and she constantly had to go to the back leaving the front empty. and after about 5-10 minutes we decided maybe it's just best to stick with a restaurant you know cause this little chain obviously just doesn't have it's shit together.
so were about to drive away and we see a pizza place in the same area... the lights are on but no one is inside... but it said they were open... when we opened the door they all rushed in from around the corner and gladly made our pizza.
my brother at this point was pretty bummed that he wasn't getting chicken but at least we were having a dinner we don't tend to have.
it was supposed to take 15 mins but t ended up being closer to 30 cause the order after us was a little complex and the machine was having a hard time with it but in the end the pizza was good and worth the wait...

but still i'll take home made food over fast food crap any day of the week...
oh well... now i just get to wait for the surprise of haruhi suzumiya to arrive... hopefully tomorrow... but who knows....

not sure what i think about this: Golden time

7 episodes in and i'm conflicted about golden time.

on one hand the Tada Banri and his character dynamic with everyone else despite his recent amnesia is an interesting idea...
on the other hand Kaga Koko is freakishly clingy to the point of being a stalker who makes shit up to fit into her 'life plan' which must be perfect.
and.... the story (again only halfway through) seems to be siding iwth kaga since she is really sincere about her feelings she just takes them too far.

but i'm sorry this girl is borderline psychotic.... and i really hope by the end he ends up with someone else... but i doubt that'll happen....
and i mean this is done by the same person who made torodora which was very sweet and sincere... but this show makes me wonder if their idea on 'what is love' has changed to this twisted version...

cause yeah... stalking you childhood friend to go to the same school as him - not romantic
pesterting him with emails and wanting to be in every class and club he's in - not romantic
being a bully to the girl he actually likes - not romantic
rufusing a confession so that you can confess yourself cause thats how you planned it - not romantic

at the same time.
confessing and getting rejected and handling it okay - yay
the next day being all pissy that she still treats you as a friend and continues to mention the boy she likes - boo
i mean... you knew going in she likes someone else.... why is this a surprise.

i dunno... i do like this show... but i really hope he ends up with linda (and i know he wont) cause kaga is just a little too crazy

i just needed to say this somewhere... cause yeah... she's not cute, sweet or romantic.... she is crazy... there is a difference.

Dropped: Beyond the Boundry

or as i call it: Spectacle over substance.

In my first impressions of this show i said... actually i said a lot.... hm..... read it all here but my point was

"yeah... okay... that's nice... why do i care?

we are now 6 episodes in and i find myself asking once again. "why do i care"

the world this show sets up is that there are essentially 3 types of beings.
Youmu - monsters that roam the earth and are killed (though not all are evil though we don't know why they aren't killed anyways....)
Spirit world hunter - the aforementioned youmu killers... they just do this... we don't have a reason for it... maybe to stop people from getting eaten? though there's been no evidence that youmu attack normal people.
Humans - can't interact with youmu or spirit world magic stuff at all.

so we have our main characters, mostly spirit world hunters and one half youmu/half spirit world hunter.

then they go to school and do things...
the main character comments on his glasses fetish.... the other guy comments on his little sister fetish.... they converse at length about which fetish is better while the 'bespectacled beauty' and real life little sister glare and comment on how perverted the two are.

the girl in glasses constantly mentions how "unpleasant" things are and is both completely oblivious to how she holds herself around others and hyper conscious about the stares she receives. she also fights with her blood so she ends up hungry after battles and she is apparently disliked by others spirit world warriors.... though only cause she tells us this... not because we ever actually see them do anything to show their dislike.

the real life little sister has a little pet youmu, no idea why or how but honestly... don't care.

the most interesting part of the entire show so far was also the point that made me the most angry.
the megane yells at the main guy about how he couldn't possibly know her pain.
as her blood rains down after a nasty fight it acts like acid to the area around her, it shows that she is alone and probably always will be.
then the main guy gets injured to the point of near death but lucky for him he's a immortal (which takes away any fear of him dying but still) well... he's only technically immortal... he's not able to die but if his body is pushed to a certain point his youmu blood takes over and he destroys everything around him till he is brought back to his senses. again we see that not only can he know her pain but he hates himself much more the she realises. we get a hint that maybe these two perpetually alone people can possibly be friends.

so what do they follow this up with?
fanservice
lots and lots of fanservice

so let me get this straight... instead of telling us more about the world... about how youmu came to be and why they are fought... about how the megane's bloodline became 'cursed' or about anything else that we may care about.... instead we get pandering episodes where nothing is furthered but it's moe so who cares?
i care...
i wanted to like this show
but it's so damn BORING

after i watched it i went to my friend and said "i expected good things but wow how boring" and he replied with.
"you can't possibly know that by only one episode..."
so my reply is
"it's 6 episodes now... and I'm more bored then i was at first"

maybe i just need to avoid Kyo-ani titles...
while this one doesn't look as much like K-on as some other titles it still has the same feel of bouncy bubbly nothing is happening moe crap.
and I'm tired of it.

though the show isn't all bad... the intro and ending songs are pretty... and look like quite a bit of money went into animating them... but they portray this interesting and epic looking show and it's just completely lacking in plot, character or anything even remotely interesting enough to have me continue watching.
now... the midpoint of a series tends to be the most tedious part... this show could get better and cut it would with all the moe fluff crap.
i guess i wont find out unless someone tells me "just watch this episode... it makes up for the rest"
but i'm not holding my breath.

you can make you own opinion and watch it over on Crunchyroll for free

Adventures in gaming

or at least adventure in buying games.

so i buy a lot of games.
some are for me... some are for my brother... either way the people at the game store tend to know me... hell i went to school with a few of them.
today my brother remembered that Call of Duty came out today. i tried to remind him he got battlefield 4 last week but he didn't care cause that was then and this is now.
so i figured... yeah he can afford it and he had beaten battlefield already... with that we went to the store.
now my brother is high functioning non verbal autistic.... he can speak but theres never any communication... it's more him just telling us what he wants or quoting movies. he's more then a little memorable... so when the clerk saw him enter he grabbed call of duty off the shelf and asked "this is what you want right?" and that made me chuckle.

now, i know in these type of game stores they are supposed to ask you certain things before going through the transaction...
this was a little brutal.
"which console?" - okay yeah i'm fine with this cause how are they supposed to know
"360"
"we actually have the super special edition with a seasons pass availble... do you want that?"
"thank you for the offer but he doesn't play multiplayer (mostly cause we dont want him repeating stuff he hears on it) so it would probably be better for someone who enjoys that to buy it"
"what about COD t-shirt, iphone cases, or cap?"
at this point i'm gettign a little annoyed.
"no no just the game is fine"
"you sure?"
"yep"
"okay how about the guarentee"
"he'll most likely beat it in a day or two and never play it again so we don't need the guarentee"
"you sure? it's only a few dollars"
"positive"
"want to preorder any new games?"
"i'm good but thank you for asking"
"and you sure you just want the standard edition of the game"
now at this point i'm thinking "yes but i kinda wanna get it from a different store now" but i didn't say that i simply held out the debit card and finally managed to pay for the game.

i get it... you work on a commission system where depending on how much extra crap you sell it reflects on your stats... i know this but theres a point when you start driving customers away.  now that being sad the cashier was nice and i'm sure had there been anyone else in the store waiting to pay i wouldn't have gotten every single question possible and maybe i was just a little in a rush cause i felt like i was going to keel over from sick.... but yeah... thats my adventure
when ys celceta comes out and i have to also buy the psvita i'm sure that'll be a fun day as well (ignores how much thats all gunna cost her)

rambling time (about pokemon)

*been hunting for shiny pokemon on and off for days with no luck* i don't get it... how can i get pokerus every single game and yet NEVER have bumped into a non-scripted shiny... *sighs*

whatever... the game hates me... moving on.

1. i'm a bit bummed about the wonder trade glitchy mystery egg pokemon... hope a patch gets rleased for that soon.

2. i really love the ending credits to this game... i know i beat it a while back but still... i find myself thinking about how it pulled one hell of a crazy stunt.

3. i wish more games would attempt something like this but maybe it's just not possible.


so... rambling time.

1.  so with one glitch fixed we are introduced to a new glitch thanks to hack pokemon... if this means the wonder trade system gets turned off completely then i'll be one of many muttering "this is why we can't have nice things"
i though wonder trade was the best thing the franchise has ever come up with... any time i caught something that was neat but i figured i'd never use i'd trade it.... and get a zigzagoon... though not all the time... thanks to wonder trade i got all the starter pokemon available... i got an eevee early on and i even got some of my fav pokemon like ponyta and vulpix thanks to it. while if you go to GTS people are asking ridiculous things or things that aren't even available in the game yet (and wont be available till pokemon bank is a thing.)
so yeah... i hope they either find a way to get rid of glicthed pokemon eggs or something cause i really like this feature...

2. i've been quite vocal about my love for soul silver... technically it's Crystal thats my fav game but this is in the same family so it counts in my books... but oddly enough my fav part of gold/silver/crystal/heart/soul is the eding credits...
that song... i just love it
so when the song played in X i was... disappointed... it was kinda blah...
until the lyrics (and i am assuming they are lyrics cause they go perfectly with the melody) showed up in both french and english (hey two languages i know!... okay i know it's cause the game is based off france) and then every language you could pick for the game showed up.... and it reminded me that this game was released everywhere at the same time (barring the whole time difference thing)... it wasn't like before when japan would have the game for a few months before we got it... and europe or australia would get it even later... everyone got it within a day of each other.
this left everyone in the same boat... we all knew as much or as little as everyone else... there was a sense of wonder as we explored the world and came across new things that made us go "what is that?"
and that reminded me of playing the game for the first time... when i first picked up the game it was all new... i wasn't allowed on the computer so i couldn't just look things up... i had to explore and figure things out on my own... if i really got stuck i had to ask my friends on how to progress (which most of the time had them asking why my team was full of such worthless pokemon since i valued cute over everything else... and still do...) so even though within a few days most of the stuff was known and able to be looked up it was still nice to have that sense of discovery that has been missing (in my person opinion/experience) from the latest pokemon games.
how many games can get away with that?
how many games can be targeted at such a large age range but make us all feel the same (cause lets be honest.... this game probably sold more to my age range then it did to kids)
and then to end the entire game with the word it choses to end on (no not Fin)... i dunno maybe it was cause i had been playing late into the night but i actually felt a little emotional when i saw the word Kiseki.
it's the only word at the end that isn't accompanied by another language but it's meaning is clear. "miracle"
granted i will admit that the first thing into my head was "well sora no kiseki second chapter will be released soon..." but thats just my inner snark... i really was moved because while i think miracle is overstating it just a little i do think what this game tried (and in my opinion succeeded) to accomplish is truly incredible... we live in an age when things can and are spoiled before they are even released yet just a few days ago a few pokemon were found hinding in the code... events maybe?

3. i would love to see some other game try this "release it the same day everywhere with as little leaked info as possible".... but i know it's unlikely... if not impossible.. still i love that they managed it...

i will continue my shiny hunting til the DLC for ace attorney is released.... then back to that... but i do want to say that i really enjoyed pokemon x and what it set out to do (or at least what i think it set out to do... maybe i'm just reading too much into things again... as always~)

Completed: Ace Attorney 5

aka: Ace Attorney: Phoenix wright: Dual Destinies

i never claim to be unbiased, it's why i don't consider myself a reviewer...
so just picture someone squealing and fangirling with delight at every reference, every solved puzzle, every bit of music and that is an accurate representation of how much i enjoyed this game.

so yeah.... i liked it... if you like the other games or visual novel type games then get it... cause it's fun... well at least i think so
i know a few people who don't like this series cause it's a lot of "rub everything on everyone until something works" (especially in Ace Attorney 1) and yeah it can be a lot of that... but i like the story and characters and music enough to just go through it.
by the 5th game you kinda get used to how the game thinks...
unfortunately the game does sorta expect that... so yeah i got some nice surprises in this one.

but it;s not the first time the game had made me regret my thought immediately.
in one game i said "hm... the thrill isn't there cause i keep defending people i know are not guilty... kinda wish i didn't know or maybe even had a guilty defendant"
then... i got my wish.
in ace attorney 4 i foolishly said "i like apollo's ability... but i mist physche locks"
then i had black psyche locks thrown in my face and immediately "no... screw that... i take it back... i lied!"
without spoiling anythign for this one all i'll say is there were two characters i hoped to see (maybe they are in the DLC?) that never showed up.
but... i have a new fav prosecutor so that's fun.

i should... talk abotu the game?
it's a 3ds e-shop only Ace attorney game rendered in full 3d (i hate having the 3d slider on but the 3d in this is really well done... probably the bets i have ever seen AND it game me a use for that kid icarus stand that i never used)

has old and new character from the series (i would say you can probably play this as a stand alone but you will get more out of knowing the other games)

it is probably one of the most cohesive games in the series... most of the time a case will have a small connection to other cases to have a bit of a thread but honestly all the cases here are kinda one big case... which i really enjoyed

the controls are the same (though there is only a few pieces of evidence you can examine in 3d and that was my fav part of some of the old games... also there are no luminol or figerprint sections (though there could have been) and while other are probably going "good those parts sucked" i liked them so... haaaannnnnnnnnnnnnngh (according to the game thats a sigh...)

there is a nice mix of megatama, apollo's bracelet and athena's hearing and while i really enjoyed athena's ability at first the lack of punishment for picking the wrong thing made the consequence for being wrong pretty minimal and so i didn't mind guessing on a hunch.
also did they take away pheonix' punishment for pestering people with the megatama? that kinda surprised me cause it made the game a bit easier. i also never ended up i na situation when i had to leave and come back with evidence.

the whole game is streamlined a bit more so if you were ever stuck you could look at the notes and it'll tell you what you need to do... in theory... i never got stuck cause again... very streamlined... the game only lets you investigate at certain times and tells you outright when there is nothing new to search. there never a question of "okay now what?" so yeah... it's good but it takes away from some of the challenge (or as normal people word it 'frustration')

apparently the typos are worse
i'm a terrible speller so... it didn't bug me (i did notice a few though)

i do miss the old voices... the new voices are fine... i just.... they aren't the same.

the story is fantastic, no chapter feels like it doesn't belong (though the yokai one drags on a little... and i wasn't a fan of the cosmic one but for reasons that are not the fault of the game) the new characters are all distinctive, the old characters make me smile cause it had been a long time since we've seen some of them (pearl, edgy, even phoenix)

but again
i'm biased
i love this series
i wanna shout that is this Game of the year from the top of my lungs (but i know thats probably only true for me)
so again, if you like the old games then you need to get this (cause if it does well maybe we'll see investigations 2 or Phoenix wright vs Prof. layton)
if you can't stand the old ones... well this probably wont make you a fan but it does take a lot of the BS out and doesn't resort to rub everything one everyone... cause it outright tells you what to rub on people.
but yeah if it's not your thing i understand.

NOW.... i get to wait for the dlc chapter... cause i don't want to wait forever for another game to be localized.
from the looks of it the only DLC are the costumes (free till nov 7th (?) ) and the one extra case but considering the game is still pretty new (6 months?) in japan who knows.. we may get more... for now though i have a fever to get rid of, a commission to finish and shiny pokemon to hunt...

and fan art to draw cause i really love this series....