I am pretty much done here. It is difficult for me to find a board here that can maintain my interest or one that I am comfortable enough to keep coming back to(activity is nice too ). This is not a Gamespot smells blog, but more so that I feel that this place just is not for me so I will not be posting that much if at all.

I will still update my game lists, but that is probably all I will be doing. Take care!

Well...since I have played a few games and watched some things lately, I figured I would do a write-up on some of them to let you all know what I thought of them. First, let me discuss Pirates of Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Something I have to say before I get into this, I really enjoyed the first movie and my enjoyment has just been steadily going downhill since. I did not think this one would disappoint me as much as At World's End would. After all, this one seemed to focus more on Jack Sparrow. How could it be bad? It is also the shortest of the bunch. Sounds good right? It would if that is actually what it was. Despite this being the shortest of the bunch, the movie still felt like it was 4 hours long. I found the movie to be very dull and unexciting. The opening escape scene of this movie in London seems promising enough, but that is the biggest action sequence you get the entire movie. The rest of the scenes pale in comparison to that. Another thing that bugged me about this movie is that Jack Sparrow felt awfully sidelined in what should have been his own film. This, I do not understand. Even during the final climax, he does more hiding than he does fighting. You would think that the movie would have the protagonist fighting the antagonist, Blackbeard, right? Not at all, Barbossa ends up being the one that fights him. I found it to be highly disappointing. When I found out that Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly were not going to be in this one, I jumped out of my seat in joy. Anytime these two were the focus in the other films, they seemed to drag. Unfortunately, this movie replaced them with a cleric and mermaid romance plot and you guessed it, it is just as boring as the other romance was. All in all, I cannot recommend this movie. It is nowhere near as fun as the others and it just drags on and on and you will find yourself wanting to do something else.

Next up is Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. This was an anime that I do not remember exactly how I found, but after I checked it out on MyAnimeList, I got curious. It was ranked within the top 20 animes and had an R-17 rating. From what I knew, magical girl animes are typically not all that violent and tend to have the friendship thing going a lot so I decided to start watching it. The anime is not perfect(I felt it could have been a little longer and an awful lot of time is spent on Sayaka), but honestly I was pleasantly surprised. The anime twisted what its genre usually encompasses and made it really dark at times. If you are looking for a new anime to look into, check this one out, it is pretty enjoyable.

Now we are going to move on to gaming. The two games I played the most since my last update are Ghost Trick and Pangya: Fantasy Golf. Ghost Trick was simply amazing. It is not very often that I finish a game in 2-3 days anymore, but I just could not put this game down at all. The story was fantastic, the character were all interesting and very fun. The game looked superb and sounded great. The game play is also just as good. Basically, your character dies in the beginning of the game and using your powers as a ghost, you have to solve the mystery of who killed you and why. Along the way, you will be saving others from getting killed by using your powers to go back to 4 minutes before their deaths. This is where the game play is focused as you have to use your powers or "ghost tricks" to figure out how to save that person. So in a sense, it is a puzzle adventure game which I seem to be loving more and more as of late as the two I have played so far have excellent stories. I honestly cannot recommend this game enough. Get it now!

Finally, Pangya: Fantasy Golf. I personally do not golf myself and do not care for it, but I really enjoy the games, especially ones like this that offer so many customization options. There are so many clubs, balls, and clothing to collect that the game can keep you busy for over 100 hours! The game even has a story mode! That really surprised me since I was not expecting a golf game to have any semblance of a story. Most of the time, it is just go have a match with this person, have fun. That is mostly what this story mode is, but it is really neat getting a sense of who all these characters are and it is great that they all have personalities instead of feeling completely one dimensional. When it comes to the game itself, it is a blast and really plays well. However, playing against the computer can get frustrating whether in matches or in tournaments. I have had occasions where I was doing well in a tournament and one of the other golfers will get a hole in one and an eagle on a par 4. I shake my head and wonder how I am supposed to compete with that. The inconsistent AI gets me sometimes, but other than that, the game is really fun and is a great portable game to have on hand if you are going on a trip. It will keep you busy.

This is mostly what I have been up to as of late...oh, I almost forget, I turned 23 Saturday. Go me! I am like Dr. Pepper now, I have 23 flavors.

Anyway, thanks for reading and hope you have a great day!

~ Seiryuu

I went to see Thor in 3D Tuesday night since I heard it was doing pretty well and others said it was good so I decided to check it out for myself. Let me get this out of the way before I get into discussing the movie itself, I really did not want to see it in 3D, but I did not really have a choice. Personally, I am sick of this whole 3D craze as I cannot justify paying more money to see the same movie. Sure, it supposedly looks better and enhances the experience, but honestly, if the movie sucks, enhancing the visuals is not going to do anything. If I am going to enjoy a movie, I need more than aesthetics and fancy visuals. Give me more! That said, I am glad we moved beyond the red and blue glasses, but this 3D fad has come and gone so many times, at this point, I still do not really care for it. It just does not do anything for me. As expected...I see a lot of movies that want to take advantage of this forget that they need to have a plot for their movie as well, but to be fair, the whole movie industry itself is full of problems, but that is a topic for another day.

This movie opens up with Thor being arrogant and wanting to attain the glory in battle his father, Odin, did in fighting the frost giants. During what would have been Thor's ceremony in becoming king, frost giants break into Asgard(the realm Odin and such live in) and try to take back an artifact that Odin had taken from them in the last war. After this, Thor disobeys his father's wishes and goes with some of his friends and his brother, Loki, to fight the frost giants in their realm. They do well at first but soon realize the odds are against them and try to return to Asgard. As they are about to get overwhelmed, Odin appears and returns them to Asgard. Furious, Odin banishes Thor, after stripping him of all his power, to the Earth realm where he will live as a mortal. Thus where the movie actually starts.

I felt that this whole opening part of the movie took a little long since it was a good 30-45 minutes in before we got to the meat of the movie. However, it is a problem I had with most of the movie, the pacing. I felt that it took too long to really get anywhere and once it does, you are already in the final act of the movie and are left with a pretty weak conclusion. With that said, I did enjoy the movie and would certainly recommend it. Is it as good as the first Iron Man movie? No, but I do not think there are going to be many comic book movies that are going to be as good as that one was. One thing I did like about the movie was the person playing Thor. I really enjoyed his portrayal of the character and would certainly like to see him do more. It leaves me looking forward to Captain America and ultimately the Avengers movie. The latter of which I am expecting to have a huge budget...hopefully it can live up to it.

As per usual:



~ Seiryuu-

Have you ever planned so many things that you want to do within a certain time span but you just do not seem to quite get any of it done? Whether it be due to unexpected circumstances or just downright laziness, I never accomplish as much as I would like to and as such, I find my life just falls into tedium since I just do the same thing day in and out, waste most of my time on the internet doing nothing. To give you an example, I would love to be able to write more reviews and impressions than I do now, but I find myself always putting it off and never really feeling motivated to do so. I typically wait for motivation to hit me but as expected, it never does. So what is one to do in this situation? I find the advice of just sitting down and doing it works at times as just getting started is usually the hardest step, but then again, I will only do a little bit before distracting myself for hours in some meaningless task on the internet or hoping a topic of interest to me will spring up on a forum. Before I know it, it grows too late and I find I barely got anything accomplished leaving me to feel disappointed, bored, and just putting it off for another day.

Procrastination is naturally the culprit here, but I find it is more so my lack of concentration on a task and just being easily distracted to be more the problem. Although this brings about another concern as there are times where I can remain completely focused and absorbed into something without anything else really getting in my way, including myself. I suppose this is nothing out of the ordinary as it makes sense that I am more interested in one undertaking more than another, but again referring to writing, it is something I wish I could just become absorbed in. It leads me to wonder whether I should even bother with it as if I cannot maintain an interest in it for long without getting distracted, what hope do I have? However, I do not think this is the case. I think it is more so that it is not something I am used to doing that much as posting blogs such as this is a new thing to me. It is also possible that I just have not found a method that really works for me yet, but that is a problem in and of itself as I put off trying new ways to do it too.

These are just some passing thoughts and something that is often on my mind but not quite to the point where I really feel like doing anything about it. I already know the answer if I ask does anybody else have things they want to do but find themselves taking no action to accomplish them so I think the better the question to ask would be, what do you do about it so that you actually get things done without really forcing yourself too much?

Passing thoughts aside, I am still playing Dissidia 012 heavily and have put about 120 hours total into it so far. I decided I would check out the semi-new labyrinth mode and I have to say, I do not think I will be playing it that much. They take all your equipment from you and you have to earn equipment while you are in there. If you lose, you lose any equipment you got while you were there. If you try to leave it without being at a designated exit, you lose everything. I do not find it is a mode that is all that fun and I found the previous game's duel colosseum to be much more enjoyable if only because it did not feel as tedious since you could leave it whenever you wanted to.

I recently finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and I found it to be a really enjoyable book. It is about solving a decades old murder within a big family but there is something more sinister lurking in the background. I am definitely looking forward to reading the next one(The Girl Who Played with Fire) after I finish Jack London's The Call of the Wild, which I am pleased to say I am enjoying as well. I will probably finish that off tonight as it is a short book, I just cannot believe I never read it sooner.

I have not purchased too much since the last update, but I might as well share what I did get. I picked up The Girl Who Played with Fire and Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. The latter is after hearing how good it was and because Siberian recommended it so I figured I might as well check it out, but I am not too sure when I will get around to playing it. I will probably start it up after I get through Darksiders as I have been meaning to start that up since I passed on the game way back when Bayonetta came out.

Finally, I have a new sig as always. This one is of Remilia Scarlet, another character from Touhou. At the rate I am going, I am going to have one for every character in the series:



Take care!

~ Seiryuu-

I remember way back during the summer when I happened upon a game announcement, one that I thought was quite unexpected. There is no way they would make a sequel(would later find out it would be prequel) to this game this soon, I thought, but lo and behold, there it was, another Dissidia! I had enjoyed the first one so much and put much of my life into it that you might have called me an addict. I eagerly anticipated each new character announcement and any other minor detail that I could absorb until the release date in March. Once it was released, I would once again have many nights where I stayed up far too late in the name of getting in one more round.

The story this time around, while still weak, is far better than what was presented in the previous game. It was your typical Final Fantasy fare of getting the crystals and then saving the day. I found that upon completing the story in this game, I felt much more accomplished and it ultimately felt more satisfying compared to the first one since as a prequel, you know what this game's story leads to. Unfortunately, that is not saying much as the story is still not all that great and nothing exciting as it still gets bogged down in the whole "friendship" thing. What I mean by this is that much of the talk is about sticking together and fighting for each other. It is not something I dislike, but having seen it in almost every media outlet in existence, it gets tiresome. The story is simply lackluster and what I thought was surprisingly brief. First, it is very disappointing that you can only play as the new characters in the story. With this game being a prequel, I would have liked to see what everyone else was doing the entire time. I understand the new characters were the focus, but it hardly mentions any of the older characters at all, in fact, they barely get any screen time. Also, what happened to the Chaos storyline? While you can play as the villains in some of the reports you unlock, it is only a fight or two. This really disappointed me as it was one thing I was really looking forward to doing and having the option to play on Chaos's side for a change would have been great.

Another issue that bugged me in the first Dissidia that unfortunately, continues here, is characters are often casted into the one role that defines them and they become one dimensional only showing a part of their personality. It works for some characters, but others, their dialogue is just painful. For example, if you played Final Fantasy IV, you know what comes to define Kain. If you know that, you know his character in this game and you can probably guess at his story. It is disappointing because you know that most of they are not defined by just one characteristic and seeing it presented as such gets irritating. It gets even more annoying when the characters just seem flat out wrong like Terra. I never viewed her as a character who was afraid to fight and was completely dependent on others, but that is how she is in this game. I also found it very odd as some characters are nearly spot on, like Kefka and Laguna, which makes me feel like the game had a different direction group for each character. Some got it right and others did not. It is something that I wish had been improved upon, as I think the story would be a tad less predictable and more enjoyable had the characters had better direction.

One addition I really enjoyed was for each boss encounter you face, that game's boss music would play. For example, if you are using Lightning and you go to fight say, the Emperor, you will hear Saber's Edge right from Final Fantasy XIII. I also appreciated how before the fight the characters would have dialogue appropriate to what was going on in the story. It is something I wish I could use for quick battle as I like when the characters have some interaction before fighting, but unfortunately, it is not an option. I thought it was a nice touch and really brought back feelings of nostalgia, but, with a game like this, feeling giddy over these moments is bound to happen a lot.

One final note on the story mode is the inclusion of a world map and I have to say, I do not really care for it. It just seems completely unnecessary and it feels like it is there to artificially extend the story while you are just running around the landscape, going from gateway to gateway, occasionally fighting enemies, or you are just getting treasure. To be frank, it is boring and in a game that is mostly about fighting, slowing down the pace like this just gets frustrating. If there was more to do on the map, it might not be as bad, but it is quite barren of anything to really accomplish. I do not think it is a waste and I appreciate the fact they chose to put it in, but I cannot say I would miss it if it was not there.

While the fighting in Dissidia 012 is mostly the same as its predecessor, the new additions made greatly improve upon what was present and makes it even more complex. The first of these additions is the assist system and while it was something I was skeptical of at first, I found myself using it more and more and once I found that right assist for my characters, it makes the combat even more enjoyable and downright satisfying. No longer do characters who have difficulty connecting with their HP moves have to wait for the precise moment to defeat their foes. All in all, I found it to be a very satisfying addition that, while it takes some getting used to, really rewards you once you get it down.

The other big addition is obviously the new characters. I am pleased to say they all blend in with the rest of the cast wonderfully and are all unique since they each have their own gimmicks. For example, Lightning is able to shift between the commando, ravager, and medic paradigms straight out of Final Fantasy XIII. It is important to remember which one you are in and which one best fits your situation requiring you to think a bit while you are fighting. Each of these gimmicks ensures that no two characters play alike and once you understand how they play, you can really bring out their true potential. That being said, it is difficult for me to say which of the new characters I have had the most fun using.

Laguna is just a blast to use with all of his guns and just being over-the-top with some of his moves(he calls his ex-burst the greatest attack ever). I was not sure about Yuna, but her summons are very satisfying to use and while they just appear out of magical glyphs, in the heat of combat, it is not something you are going to concern yourself with. I was worried she might be a little slow, but she has her fair share of quick moves to get out of pressure if need be. Admittedly, I have not used Vaan too much since I dislike the character, but from what I did use, I do not like his HP moves too much, but his brave moves are quite fun since he is constantly switching weapons and almost all of them seem to break through guard. Kain is another character that is just plain fun to use. After you connect with a move, his gimmick allows him to dash after the opponent to keep hitting them. The timing can be tricky, but once you figure it out, you will be racking up hits like crazy. Tifa is another character I was unsure about and was even more unsure about how to use her gimmick, which is feints. Basically, you can cancel out of her moves by hitting X before they connect, warp closer to the opponent, and then continue the move if you choose to. As you can imagine, you can really trick your foes with it. However, like Kain, the timing is tricky on some of her feints and takes some getting used to, but my experience with her has been a good one and find myself using her more and more. Finally, there are three hidden characters, I have not unlocked the last one yet, but the other two, Prishe and Gilgamesh, are very welcome additions. Prishe is a brawler like Tifa is, but she combos constantly. She can break opponents very easily, but when it comes to connecting with HP moves, she has a little trouble. That being said, I found myself beating opponents into the wall with nearly every move she has and I cannot deny that I did not smile in satisfaction. Gilgamesh, while I am sad DiMaggio did not do his voice, is incredibly fun to use. His gimmick is that he just pulls one of 8 weapons each time he attacks and as you would expect, some weapons are more effective than others. Some of his moves are very comical like when you use his missile move, he pulls a giant missile out of nowhere(complete with sound effects out of a cartoon) and sends it at the opponent. I have used him a lot and loved it everytime. However, my first experience with him will always be the most memorable as the first time I used his ex-mode, I pulled 8 excalipoors. Fear my 1 barrage!

I found myself really enjoying the new stages as well except for Orphan's Cradle, but thankfully, you are not put on that stage too often. I do tend avoid that stage as much as possible kind of like how I always tried to avoid Planet's Core and Ultimecia's Castle in the previous game. These stages are not that much fun to fight on and it is no fun having to fight your opponent and the stage at the same time. That being said, my favorite new stages would have to be Empyreal Paradox, Phantom Train, and Prima Vista. They are not the biggest stages or the most open, but they are quite fun to fight on and besides, smashing the chairs on the train never gets old.

However, if there is one thing that still annoys me about this game is the AI. It is not that I find it too hard, but I just find the AI annoying. Any stage that has streams of light, like Planet's Core, your foe seems more content to just surf around the stage the entire time while you get stuck chasing them all over. It seems they think the war between the gods should be settled by surfing. There are other times where I found the AI does incredibly stupid things like making no attempt to dodge some of your moves. I cannot tell you how many times they walked right into a megaflare. I found it does take some challenge out and it can get frustrating at times, but I never found myself getting to the point where I did not want to play anymore. One more tidbit that I found annoying and something that is carried over from the previous game is the camera. Sometimes it cannot focus on your character properly and for lack of better phrasing, it just seems to have a seizure. In the heat of the action, this can get very annoying fast, but fortunately, it does not seem to happen that often.

The sound on the other hand, is great. I simply love most of the remixes of some classic Final Fantasy songs. The arrangement of Force Your Way from Final Fantasy VIII is simply fantastic and it is definitely one of my most used songs in a fight. Another one I tend to choose a lot is Esper Battle from Final Fantasy XII. It is amazing what just adding drums to a song can do for it. There are some songs that I am indifferent toward, like the J-E-N-O-V-A arrangement, but I feel that is because I would have loved to have the version from Advent Children in instead as it is my favorite version of it, but alas, I suppose I cannot have everything.

When it comes to voice acting, I find it is either hit or miss. You are either going to like the voices or you are not, but some are definitely better than others. Kefka's voice actor is one I really enjoyed and almost all of his lines had me laughing. I really wish he would have showed up in every scene. I was worried about Laguna's voice actor at first as he is one of my favorite characters, but his grew on me and I am satisfied with his, but if there is one that I am still not sure on, it is Kain's. I do not know, but having played Final Fantasy IV, I did not think that would be the voice you would want to go with. It is not that I hate it, but I do not really like it all that much either. One thing I will say though, Keith David as Chaos is easily my favorite voice actor in this game(was in the last too). He really brings the character to life and there is just something about his voice that is alluring.

The game is really much of the same as the first one, but there is just so many other things to do in the game, such as making your own stories and the labyrinth mode. It will likely keep you occupied for a very long time if you enjoyed the first one, I know I will likely be putting in over 100 hours into this one as well. It is slow going at first, but as you progress, the game rewards you more and more. I definitely recommend trying it out.

- Hiryuu

Greetings everyone! I know it has been awhile since I gave a proper update. I am not quite good at keeping others updated on what I am doing, but I would like to at least try to write more. Anyway, I will now tell you all what I have been up to for the past month or so.

Gaming

I finished and reviewed 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors(which you can find here). I must say, this game was worth every penny and really glad I played it. It was truly an amazing experience and I hope to see more games like this in the future. I highly recommend it. I have also picked up Marvel vs Capcom 3, Okamiden, and Tactics Orge. Sadly, I have only played MvC3, but I intend to get to the others at some point.

My impressions of MvC3 are really mixed. The gameplay is top notch and it is really a blast to play, but unless you like playing online heavily or have a group of people to play this with, there is really nothing to do. I find the lack of modes in this game simply astounding. For a $60 game, I expect more than a short arcade mode(with really disappointing endings), mission, and training mode. I have played some multiplayer and my biggest question is, where is the spectator mode? It is really boring being in a lobby with 4+ people and you have to sit there and watch license cards bounce off of each other. I should not have to wait over 10 minutes just to play again. If spectator mode cannot be done, just pair the others up who are not playing so they have something to do. It is just all baffling to me and the whole product just feels...unfinished. Honestly, I often hear that it is a fighting game, so what do you expect, but, it is the year 2011. I think we should expect more from our games. All-in-all, if you are heavily into online or have others to play with frequently, definitely check it out cause it is a blast to play. If not, you may want to wait awhile.

I also decided to jump into Tales of Phantasia for the GBA and my biggest problem with it is the random encounter rate. My God is it high. The game uses an action oriented style for its fights so you would think that the encounters would go by quickly, but, this being a port, they do not. I have watched videos of other versions of this game and they go by so much more smoothly compared to this version. They are just so slow and you just get worn down fighting the same 2-3 enemies over and over. That being said, it is not all bad. The battle system is still fun and while I am not enjoying it as much as I have with other games, I wanted to at least give it a chance because I was nearly ready to drop this game. One final note on this game, the translation in this port is terrible. Remember kids, ragnarok = kangaroo.

Finally, I have just picked up Dissidia 012 and I love it so far. So be on the look out for impressions later this week.

Anime

Not much to say in this department except that I have been watching Romeo X Juliet. I have to say, I really like how they put their own twist on things. I do not remember too much from the original story as it has been awhile, but I remember the basics. I also like how they inserted a William Shakespeare character into the anime itself. If you enjoyed the play, at least check this out. I think it is worth the watch.

Books

I got back into reading books again and so glad I did. I recently finished Naomi Novik's Tongues of Serpents and Sun Tzu's The Art of War. The former...well, let me just say I enjoyed the previous books more. I felt this one was too short and quite frankly, boring compared to the others. That and it just sort of concluded when things were getting interesting and it just felt like an interlude between bigger books. Needless to say, I am eager to see if the next book will be an improvement. The latter was just something I have been meaning to read for a very long time and I finally just sat down to read it. It is not a long book and if you have the time, I would certainly recommend it as it does have useful info in it. Not to mention, it is really interesting to note that a lot of what is in there you can pick up from video games.

As far as books I have recently purchased goes, I have picked up the following:

- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
- The Call of the Wild by Jack London
- A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
- The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Norris
- The Complete Plays of Sophocles by Sophocles
- Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis

I picked up the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo because I had watched movie way back in September and I really liked it, so I wanted to read the series of books before I watched the rest. I have just started the book about a week ago and it has completely drawn me in. The others I picked up because Amazon was having a three for four sale. I got Call of the Wild because I remember Siberian talking about it and it seemed like an interesting read. A Game of Thrones I bought because it is a series I have heard a lot about, but just never got around to. I guess I will find out what all the buzz is about now. When it comes to historical figures, I like Napoleon and Teddy Roosevelt. Unable to find anything of interest on Napoelon, I went with this book on Teddy. I am really looking forward to that one. Now the next one is just something I enjoy reading. What can I say, I enjoy the tragedies. Finally, the last one is another I have been meaning to get for a long time.

I am sure I will keep you all updated on how I feel about all of these books when I get around to reading them.

Sigging

Of course, what would one of my blogs be without sigs to show off. I am pretty happy with how these came out, especially the Trish one. Check em out:








Thanks for reading and see you around!

~ Seiryuu-

When I was a younger lad, I can remember taking a hike on a trail with a friend of mine, his father, and a few of his brothers. I recall having much fun with them; whether it was roasting marshmallows over our fire or simply lighting firecrackers for amusement, we enjoyed ourselves. There was nothing too special about the journey itself and admittedly, I do not remember too much except for bits and pieces of conversation or almost stumbling a few times. Other than that, the memory that sticks with me the most was that it was an enjoyable experience, from beginning to end, and is something I would certainly enjoy doing again.

I mention this because I find that I often get in my own way in my own hobbies and activities, often taking them more seriously than I should. I get angry at myself for minor errors and expect the best results. Oftentimes when I finish a piece of writing or a signature, the first things I notice are the errors I have made. I do not even give myself a chance to revel in the success of completing it. I place too much concern on the end result and barely view it as a stepping stone to getting better or really appreciating experience.

In relation to the hike we took, what was my original goal? It was to give myself happiness and joy. I was not practicing to be the next person to reach the top of Mt. Everest, but went on the trip due to it sounding interesting and fun. Could you imagine if I had taken this too seriously? The memory that would have stayed with me would not be the experience, but the end result of how I should not have been so tired nor should I have almost fell so many times or the fact I did not have anything interesting to say. Silly criticisms I know, but those would have been the prevailing thoughts if I treated it like I do with my other hobbies.

Happiness is the true goal of what you are doing. Results will come with time. Treat it as an experience, not as a means to an end. Much like the times I stumbled, learn from your errors to ensure they do not reoccur too much, if at all. If you find your own criticisms are in your way, treat it like those pieces of conversation, remember the parts that matter and leave the rest go. Do not let it hamper the journey. It is important to remember to do things for you, to have fun, to enjoy the experience, and to not take it too seriously.

This past week...well, was not the best. I finally finished up and have done everything I wanted to in ZHP. I even decided to review it which you can find here! It was truly a great game and never thought I would play it as much as I did. There was just so much to do and enjoy, but you can read about it there.

After ZHP, I decided to finally start playing 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors. This game was really light on the gameplay side, but it made up for it with a really complex and fantastic story. It always kept you guessing and it kept you feeling paranoid throughout most of the game. The game was just downright chilling at points. I intend on reviewing it at some point so keep your eye out for that.

I then decided to pop in Ace Combat Zero. After my first session with it, just something feels off. It just does not have the same feeling 4 or 5 did. However, this is only after one playing, so that may change. One other thing I love and hate is a new mechanic they added in this. It is sort of a morality meter. You can go and destroy civilian targets or you can leave them be. Also, with some enemies you fight, you just simply neutralize them instead of destroying them. They are still alive, but they are just no longer a threat to you. I like the part of targeting civilians or not, but I dislike not being able to destroy all enemies. Granted, I can destroy the neutralized targets, but that is just wasting ammo. It just takes away the satisfaction of shooting down an enemy that has been on your tail half the mission. Overall, still having more fun with this one than I did with 6. It is also great that my wingman actually seems useful. Yay!

In the world of sigging, I have made 3 versions of the same sig based off of a similar idea. I thought they all came out alright, but I am not sure which version I like the most. I also intend on making 4 more for the characters I will likely be using in MvC3 so I should be busy with that for a few days. Anyway, here are the sigs:





Now for the crappy news. I would rather not get too into this as it is depressing, but...my cat that I had for 15 year died on the 9th. I have been talking to people about it and just trying to keep my mind off of it, however, it only works for so long. It is going to take me awhile to get used to her not being around anymore or having her on my bed almost every night. I miss her dearly, but she gave me 15 fantastic years. R.I.P. Comet.

Thank you all for reading!

~Seiryuu-

Just have not felt like giving a proper update in awhile. I hope your 2011 is getting off to a great start and hopefully things stay positive for you all. I have been watching a bunch of anime and doing a lot of gaming so let us just dive right into that!

When it comes to anime, I have gotten through a bunch lately. I finished Gurren Lagann awhile ago but never said anything about it for some reason. Anyway, when it comes to ridiculous, over-the-top actions, this one is a contender. Some of the fights were insane, but I am not saying this is a bad thing as I quite enjoyed the anime. What made the anime great was the characters. It was good to see how they developed as the series went on and it was just fun to watch. I strongly recommend it. Next up is Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. I absolutely loved how dark and cryptic this anime got. Some of the violence is downright gruesome, but honestly, do not let that turn you away from it. There is an excellent plot and lovable characters to be found here. It typically restarts all the events in different arcs, but not much of it will make sense until near the end. However, the next season Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai does a much better job of explaining it all. I would talk about it more, but I do not really want to spoil anything. I have almost finished the last set of OVA's known as Rei, but my absolute favorite out of these would probably be Kai. It was just so enjoyable and the characters were just awesome the whole way through. However, as you would expect, I did come out of the series with a favorite and naturally, I made a sig of her:



One finally tidbit on this series, ni and Kai's OP are some of my favorites out there. I can listen to both of them for hours and really reflect both seasons perfectly.

Now when it comes to gaming, ZHP: Unlosing Ranger vs Darkdeath Evilman officially owns my soul. I have not stopped playing this game since I bought it. I beat the story of the game, but there is still so much to do. I am currently working my way through the mastery dungeons. I have gotten through 2 of them so far without much issue. I also unlocked all the Dengeki characters as well, but I have not switch since I got Horo. I got two more mastery dungeons to go and then I will have done everything this game has to offer. I put 100 hours into this game so far. I do not remember the last time a game ate up so much of my life. In spite of this, I have also purchased a bunch of games as well:

• Ace Combat: Zero


• Darksiders


• Fight Night Round 3(brother wanted it)


• Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors


• Resonance of Fate

I am sure I forgot a few, but I got a lot to play in addition to bunch to look forward to this year. The most I am looking forward to right now are Dissidia 012(Kain, Laguna, and Gilgamesh all in the same game!?), Marvel vs Capcom 3, and Okamiden. I am not sure if I will have time or money to play all of them!

Finally...still have not found a job, but living in this area kind of hampers that. There is not much in the way of anything past physical labor here. Not that I feel I am above it, but I do not want to come out of college just to end up a janitor. :S

I think that is all I got. Hope you have a good Sunday. Take care!

~Seiryuu-

Here is my entry!

Clue 1: Van Nguyen
Clue 2: Jody Robinson
Clue 3: Guy Cocker
Clue 4: Matthew Gravish
Clue 5: Chris Watters
Clue 6: Kevin VanOrd
Clue 7: Aaron Sampson
Clue 8: Alex Sassoon Coby
Clue 9: Wernher Goff
Clue 10: Jan Heir
Clue 11: Randolph Ramsay
Clue 12: Andrew Park
Clue 13: Mark Walton
Clue 14: Justin Calvert
Clue 15: Sophia Tong
Clue 16: Kurtis Seid
Clue 17: Giancarlo Varanini
Clue 18: Justin Porter
Clue 19: Ryan MacDonald
Clue 20: Tyler Winegarner
Clue 21: Maxwell McGee
Clue 22: James Kozanecki
Clue 23: Frank Adams
Clue 24: Sarju Shah
Clue 25: Shaun McInnis
Clue 26: Ricardo Torres
Clue 27: Tom Magrino
Clue 28: Dan Chiappini
Clue 29: Homer Rabara
Clue 30: Takeshi Hiraoka
Clue 31: Tor Thorsen
Clue 32: Jim Maybury
Clue 33: Carolyn Petit
Clue 34: Tom McShea
Clue 35: Dan Mihoerck
Clue 36: Jane Douglas
Clue 37: Brendan Sinclair
Clue 38: Laura Parker

Yup! Winter officially started. I am not too fond of the season myself, but what am I going to do about it? I have been doing really well. I finally graduated college so I am done with school forever. I will have to start looking for a job after the holidays, but for now, I am just enjoying my time off. It is such a relief to finally be done. I am of the type that does not believe your life continues to get worse as you get older. So I am looking forward to the next stage of my life and what the future holds for me.

I have also started trying out a new mindset. Basically have no expectations and go with it. Obviously, this does not apply to everything, but when it comes to bowling or making sigs, I found it really helps out. Ultimately, my only goal is to have fun and so far it has been really working.

On the gaming front, I finished Brotherhood and I have to say, the game was great until the near end. It started to annoy me once I got to that point. That aside, I enjoyed the game and really enjoyed having assassins to call in. If there was anybody I did not feel like chasing or killing, I would send those guys/gals in to take care of it while there are no repercussions for me at all! The odd thing is, the most fun I had in the game were the war machines you could do for Leonardo. It was so much fun sneaking around and then you get to use whatever war machine you were going to destroy. It was so much fun. I still have to try out the multilayer, but once I do, I am going to get started on a draft for a review.

I have also been playing ZHP Unlosing Ranger vs Darkdeath Evilman. I am really enjoying the game. It is just such a time killer and a really enjoyable game. The sense of humor in the game is marvelous as well. I would definitely recommend the game to anybody who likes RPGs. You even get a stat boost when you die! So dying is not that bad.

I am currently in the process of hunting down La Pucelle and Ace Combat Zero to add to my owned games list, but I have not had much luck in finding it yet. However, I never had an easy hunt before so this is expected. Besides, where is the fun if I get it right away? I am also looking into picking up Vanquish. Apparently it is in the some vein of craziness as Bayonetta so I have to buy that.

Speaking of purchasing things, I also picked up the extended edition of Avatar(with all the bonus crap I do not care about) and the A-Team movie. I liked both of these but when it comes to the A-Team, the show still had more charm, so in the end, I prefer the show over the flick, but that is not to say it is a bad movie. I would definitely check it out if you have any interest in it.

Finally, I have made two sigs recently I would like to share:


I was obsessed with the song for awhile and that certainly helped spawn this.


I found that render awhile back, but I just never got around to making the sig. I am really happy with how this one came out.

Hope you all had a good day and this will likely be my last blog before the holiday so, Merry Christmas! *gives everyone a candy cane*

~ Seiryuu-

There is a question that always plagues my mind and unfortunately, it is one I never have a definite answer for. It has been asked in a variety of ways, but what it comes down to is, what do you want to be when you grow up? I am 22 and will be graduating college very shortly with no answer. I thought I had one throughout different stages of my life, but they were just passing interests. My aspiration throughout high school was either to be a video game designer or a graphic designer, but the schools were too far away from where I lived and I had convinced myself I was not talented enough. I had closed the path off before I had even started on it. Looking back, it is something I came to regret. I often wonder how different my life would be had I taken this road, but I suppose it is asinine to continually worry about it and just move forward with acceptance of the decision I made.

Lacking any other ideas of what I should do with my life, I chose to enroll in the state university. This time, I had the intention of being a history teacher. I had an interest in the subject and there were many who said I would make a great teacher. I thought to myself that I should at least try it out this time so you can be absolutely sure. I found the history courses at the college level to be extremely informative, if bogged down with reading, but that would come with this major. When it came to the education courses, I became more and more disinterested as I took more of these courses until it finally hit the point where I was no longer interested in it. It was not only the material, but it had dawned on me that I would not be able to or want to deal with misfits in a classroom. Besides, me a teacher? What a foolish thought. What was I even thinking? I suppose this was the instance where I was not. I had not taken my own best interests into consideration and was only taking others' suggestions. Unfortunately, I felt it was too late to really be exploring majors as it had already been a year and I did not want to stay in college forever ala multiple college movies. It was then that I was just going to be a straight up history major. Did I have any ideas of what I would use it for? Nothing ever came to mind and whenever I would read up on it, nothing seemed to interest me or it called for far more schooling than I wanted to partake in. The research was not completely useless as one thing I did notice was that the degree can cover a huge range of careers. Despite this, I chose to not worry about it, I still had time before I would graduate, so I thought perhaps something would strike me.

It never did. If anything, the situation got worse. I was no longer interested in history that much, not enough to work in that field anyway. Now I really did not know what I was going to do. I was at a complete loss. Whenever somebody asked me the question, I just told them that I was going to work and then hopefully figure something out. I hated saying it and began to loathe myself because of it. Why could I not figure out what I want to do with my life? Most of the people I knew had a plan for their lives and here I sat with my graduation date coming closer and closer. It was maddening!

Now, here I am. The week I graduate with still no definite plan, but I do have at the very least, an idea of what I want to do. I have been considering getting into gaming journalism writing reviews, editorials, or whatever else comes to my mind. Many people have said that what I do write is very well-written. It does need some work, but it will get better as I do it more. The problem is, I am not sure if I want to do this either(big surprise). I would like to believe I got over my self-doubt, but it would appear I have not. I do not write at the pace that I want to. I know I can do more, but I just do not. The pieces that I do write take me months at times. I cannot have a career doing this if I cannot write at a reasonable rate. I would like to think that I did not write at such a pace because of college, but I am not even so sure of that anymore. The ultimate question is, can I do it? Like a certain tale you may be familiar with, I think I can, I think I can. However, can I keep up with it? It is something I would like to test myself of once I do finally graduate this weekend. I am hoping for the best, but we will see if I can get out of my own way long enough to succeed.

~ Seiryuu-

Just wanted to give a brief update. I am going to be relatively busy this week with papers and such, but it will be the last bunch of them I ever have to do!

I recently beat Assassin's Creed 2 and got all the achievements for it too. So that makes me happy. All-in-all, I really enjoyed the game and I think I fell off of more roofs than I ever have in my gaming career. I will probably start up Brotherhood at some point so I can get through that and try out the multiplayer. For those of you who read my piece on gaming manuals...this game has a pamphlet. It is 2 pages. I may review it, but we will see how I feel.

Speaking of reviews, my Lords of Shadow one is up so check that out. I may go back and review a few PS2 games(like Ace Combat 4 & 5), but we shall see!

Anyway, I am going to go play Golden Sun. Have a good night!

~ Seiryuu-

I have spent entirely too much the past few days...with more to come it looks like. I spent $54 on Wednesday buying Super Castlevania IV and Super Mario RPG at a mom and pop store, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood off of Amazon for $40, Assassin's Creed 2, Fable II, and Lost Odyssey for another $40, and then Golden Sun this coming Monday for $30. I suppose it is a good thing I get paid next Friday which will make up for what I spent.

So, not too worried about that...just not that excited about shelling out that much in so few days. The good news is, after Monday, I will not be buying much outside of the essentials for awhile. I just need to remember to not go crazy again for a weeks...at least until February and March.

I also recently finished my Lords of Shadow review so once I get around to proofreading it, I will probably put it up on here. So be sure to check that out.

Anyway, I have never done one of these before, but I am in the mood for one, so ask me anything within reason(aka nothing personal like my name and such) and I will get around to answering it when I can.

Oh! I hope you all had a good holiday(if you celebrated Thanksgiving) and I hope you all have a good weekend. Take care!

~ Seiryuu-

I do not even remember the last time I gave a proper update about what I got going on, but to fair, last month was incredibly busy in between classes, midterms, and papers. However, I am leaving to go home for break today so my schedule is pretty much clear for a week at least. That leaves me excited since I can go see some of my old friends again...and watch more anime without worrying about a bandwidth limit.

Speaking of anime, I recently finished Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and have started Soul Eater. Brotherhood is definitely one of the best I have watched thus far. Almost every episode was great and the story was fantastic. It always left you wanting more. I also really enjoyed the cast, but my favorites would probably be Wrath and Pride. I liked Wrath simply because of his fighting style. Dual-wielding + fast = awesome! I enjoyed Pride simply because he could pretty much do what he wanted due to his power. All in all, I would highly recommend the series. As far as Soul Eater goes, I am about 16 episodes in and liking it a lot thus far. Despite the fact she is not in it that much and pretty much the fan-service character, I really like Blair. She has the playful attitude I enjoy and her voice is just awesome. When it comes to cat girls though, I still like Black Hanekawa a tad more at the moment...mainly cause she had the best laugh ever. Nyahahaha!

When it comes to gaming, I have not been doing much lately, but that is because my Xbox decide to implode. However, it happened at a good time since the warranty was going to run out soon, so I cannot complain about that too much. They shipped it back early this week so it should be waiting at home for me(I hope). I can finally level my character in Borderlands to 69 now...I would have did it earlier, but it broke the same day they let the update out. Just my luck. I also recently picked up Tales of Phantasia and the Sims 2. The Sims 2 may not have been a good idea...especially it being close to the end of the semester and the Sims being an addictive game. I really like what I played so far, but any opportunity to get overly creative is right up my alley...I can play it all day. I have not started Phantasia yet, but I intend to start that and Vesperia over break, so I will try to get impressions up. I have also been working on a Lords of Shadow review, but I have a serious problem with motivation and getting into it, but that is a story for another time. One other piece I would like to work on is my top Ace Combat songs, but it will only be 4, 5, 6 since those are the only ones I have played, so the list will be sort of limited, but I feel I need to write something about them.

I have also made a few sigs since the last update, but you can see those below if you want to look at them...or just wait until I eventually use them. Anyway, I think that is all I got for now. I may have another update next week, but if not, have a great Thanksgiving!

~ Seiryuu-

I remember about 12-15 years ago, I would go buy a new game, play it for a bit, and once I finished my session, I would probably go read the manual. Back then, manuals were almost always colorful, informative, and were usually pretty lengthy. I can remember going back and reading a manual for DOOM on the SNES and you got descriptions of all the weapons in the game and even the enemies. Everything was so detailed and colorful in those manuals. You also usually got just a bit of story to give you a taste of what was going on and it left you wanting to know more, and thus, you would play the game more. I can remember spending many nights just looking through old game manuals, whether I beat the game or not yet was irrelevant, it was just fun looking through the pictures and to see if there was something about the game I had missed. I cannot think of too many manuals I had that barely told you much about the game.

Nowadays, most manuals are ridiculously short, in black and white, and barely tell you anything. I recently picked up Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and while I was not expecting much from the manual, I was expecting more than four pages. Did I mention that it was not in color either? What happened here? This is not the only example that I have seen either. BlazBlue: Continuum Shift and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 are both waning in length and detail. It is incredibly disappointing when I go to read a game's manual and find that it barely informs you of anything of value outside of the controls and even then, that is pointless because these days, there is almost always an in-game tutorial. I could deal with the lack of color if the manuals were at least more informative, for example, why not include brief descriptions of the characters or weapons in the game? A recent example of a game that did this was Alan Wake and to be quite honest, I was surprised at how descriptive it was. It told you just enough about the plot of the game to spark your curiosity, revealed some of the characters, weapons, and enemies you would encounter. While the manual did not feature too many colors, mostly darker shades of blue and black, but this works to the game's advantage as that is how its atmosphere is. All in all, its manual is superb compared to many of today's games. Borderlands is another example. It gives you just enough info about everything in the game to leave you wanting more. Why can the others not follow their example? Taking BlazBlue: Continuum Shift as a case in point, why not include descriptions of the characters and a summation of what is taking place? I understand that this game is a sequel, but this may be the first game some people play in the series, so why not inform them a tad? It does not have to be anything extraordinarily detailed, but it should give you just enough to leave you curious and wanting more. What caused this transition toward lackluster manuals? I believe there are a few reasons as to why this seems to be the standard. I believe that this is the case because it is cheaper to print on black and white than in color and the common practice of including most of the info within the game itself.

If I am a gaming company and my goal is to save money where I can while maximizing profits, one area I can do this in is by putting my manuals in black and white. While this may not make much of a difference in the short term, but after many gamy releases and over millions of prints of different manuals, it adds up. There is a reason why many newspapers are not fully in color as it would get too costly over time. Another area related to printing costs where you can save money is simply making the manuals shorter, but you may need to get the information out somewhere. How can this be done? This is done through putting the info that would normally be in the manual, within the game itself.

This is another common practice that I am starting to see in many games today. You will either have a few characters in the game that will tell you every single thing you would want to know, or you will the option on the mode selection screen to select some form of "encyclopedia" for the game. For example, Dissidia Final Fantasy, while certainly not having a poor manual, will illustrate what I am talking about. This game has the option of the "Museum" and one section within has info about all the characters in the game. So even if you do not know anything about these characters, the game itself provides enough to give you an idea. Bearing this in mind, this is an easy way of shortening the manual, but for those who are curious enough, can just view them within the game. However, in most cases, I should not have to turn the game or search for it just to read more about it. By having a good manual, it is just a matter of convenience as I can just easily refer to it.

In conclusion, I understand that not all manuals today are like this, thankfully, but it is a trend that I am starting to notice. I would really like a return to those colorful manuals from times past. They were fun to look through and provided good information about the game. They left you curious of what was in the game and would inform you of things to look out for. All-in-all, manuals today should not be gimped, if anything, they should be improved, but alas, I fear they will never be like the tomes of the past.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is the latest entry in the long running series and is considered a reboot. The game takes place during the Middle Ages and you play as Gabriel Belmont. I am not too far in the game so I do not have a good grasp as to what is going on yet, but as far as I know, dark forces are preventing the ties between Heaven and Earth and because of that, dead souls cannot leave. You are working to remedy this situation.

The gameplay takes center stage with this game, as expected. While it is fun, it just feels like God of War with a different look. This is not a problem per se, but it would have been nice to have something a little more unique. I just beat chapter one tonight and the boss of that level felt like something directly out of Shadow of the Colossus. While it is ok to be inspired by other games, this just feels like throwing two different games into a blender and calling it Castlevania. However, do not get me wrong, I am enjoying the combat in the game and all the minor bosses and big bosses have been quite fun. My concern is that while I do not consider it much of a problem, it all has the been there, done that feeling to it and thus, it all feels routine and I do not really worry myself that much with what I am doing. Another problem I have at this point in the game is the amount of timing events. I only did one chapter and I must have run across at least a dozen of them. I do not mind these in small doses, but, it is getting a little monotonous. Despite all this, if you want another game like God of War with all the enjoyable action, blood, and violence, look no further than this.

The game controls pretty much like every action game out there. If you played God of War or Ninja Gaiden, you will feel right at home here. The controls are the same almost to the tee. You have your direct attacks and your area attacks. As you can probably guess from the name, the direct ones are essentially for when you are taking on targets one at a time while the area ones cover a larger amount of space and allows you to engage multiple enemies. You also get sub-weapons and while I only have the dagger so far, I am surprised that it will actually dispose of the minor enemies with only one or two. However, you do not get too many of these at the start so I suppose that makes up for it. I did not see of anyway to do this, but can you control the camera? While the camera is not the worst I have experienced, it is pretty bad in some spots and it can hamper your experience.

When it comes to appearances in this game, it looks really good and I did not notice any graphical flaws. The game flows nicely and even in the heat of the action, there was not any slowdown. I am disappointed in the enemies I have encountered so far. It has only been werewolves, wolves, and goblins. I am sure this will get varied as I get further in the game, but right now, I want more variety! The sound, as I expected is fantastic. The music is just beautiful and accompanies the game nicely. Not only that, but the voice acting so far has been stellar, especially Patrick Stewart. I swear that that man cannot disappoint. All in all, if you want a good action game, definitely check it out, but do not be surprised if it feels awfully familiar.

~ Seiryuu-

It was in my comm 118 class. We got to talking about whether various types of media could bring about emotional responses and vary your mood. Before the class ended, the professor mentioned video games and whether they could do that. Some people agreed, but the ones that disagreed surprised me. It is presumptuous of me, but I highly doubt they are gamers or have not played the right games. One of their responses was because it was interactive and that you control it. This may be true with some genres, but the ones with heavy stories(like RPGs) can certainly effect your mood. When I beat Crisis Core, the ending made me feel absolutely terrible. Spoilers for the end of Crisis Core follow:

That is just one example, having recently beat Final Fantasy VI, I can list off a few other examples, but I will not get into that.

Has a game ever had a huge effect on you? Does it still hold affect you? Is there anything that continually reminds you of it?

Let me know what you guys/gals think.

~ Seiryuu