Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Bracing the cold winter break

Hey, so much has happened in between then and now. Actually, most of it started happening after my last post.
Trying to get it all in chronological order here in my head.

First I believe was New York Comicon!
First con I been to, it was pretty fun, they had many great things there, I met lots of well known people. Like the guy who does SMBC, that was fun. I got one of his t-shirts that has a dinosaur kamikaze'ing into an asteriod saying revenge. It is pretty awesome.
Although the best part about the trip, i would have to say would be the midnight escapade I had with one of my friends. I went under a school sponsored trip, and one of the students under my friend's supervision got lost. Of course, this lost student's phone died of batteries and this is almost midnight in Manhattan. This student was nowhere to be found so my friend decided to go look for the lost student. I tagged along with him because looking for someone alone in Manhattan at midnight doesn't sound like a fun idea.
This search actually ended up becoming more of an adventure as we got to meet a replica cast of jersey shore on the subway, at the subway station we also met this one guy who kept calling people country and trying to pick up chicks from across the tracks. At the end of the trip, it was 5am and then we get a call that the lost student made it back to the hotel we were staying at. Best pointless trip ever. There was also two really drugged out people later that morning on the bus talking about missing their phone. Moral of the story; don't stay at a hotel in new jersey.

Not long after that, I managed to get my hands on a copy of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES.
It's a jRPG game produced by Atlus. You are the silent protagonist who recently transferred to Gekoukan high school. Upon entering the city of tatsumi port island, the protagonist experiences the dark hour; an hour that exists at midnight in which all normal people are turned into coffins and all power turns off. Only people who wield the power of persona, facets of the selves that appear when one is confronted by an extraordinary situation, are not turned into coffins. Also things called Shadows appear only during the dark hour and they feed off the minds of people turning them into mindless beings incapable of doing anything. These mindless beings are called the lost and the symptoms they have are known as apathy syndrome. The source of these shadows comes from a tower called tartarus that only appears during the dark hour. The silent protagonist finds and joins up with others who also are persona users to find out the truth behind the existence of the dark hour and tartarus.
The gamplay is quite interesting since half of the game involves you managing the school life of the silent protagonist in a simulation like game while the other half is dungeon crawling. Their combat system is pretty unique in the sense that I haven't seen anything even remotely like it. Whenever you hit someone where it hurts or do a critical hit on them, it puts them into a state known as 'down', when you do, you get an extra turn. However, hitting someone in 'down' state will not give you an extra turn. Also aoe attacks don't give extra turns either. If you're down, you take a whole turn to get back up. It's a brutal game that presents it's challenges fairly well. I enjoyed this game, both gameplay wise and story wise.

Shortly after that, my three month old laptop decided that right in the middle of the semester to die on me, never to boot ever again. So that became a problem rather fast.I managed to get around it by using the hard drive in it as an external hard drive to a computer in the computer labs. Was it a pain? yes. Was it worth it? no. Never again do I want another laptop to die that hard ever again.

Meanwhile during the above mess, I managed to borrow someone's copy of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4. A sequel to persona 3, but mostly by name. It features a brand new cast in a totally new location. The story behind it is, you're the silent protagonist who is the new transfer student to yasogami high school. However, the day you transfer there, a murder has taken place inside the small town of Inaba, the town you're staying to going to school in. The body of the victim was found hanging upside down from an antenna on someone's roof. You quest to solve the murder that has happened, to find out who did it and how did they do it. Along the way, you look for the answers to many other mysterious things that arises as you continue further to solving this mystery.
The gameplay is the same as persona 3, half simulation and half dungeon crawling. Although they improved alot of small things from 3. Which made playing a bit more easier. Also one major change they made from 3 to 4 is the battle system. Now down doesn't take a turn to get up from, but if you're hit in the weak spot or crited while down, you become dizzy which takes a whole turn to recover from. Also aoe attacks now gives extra turns if you hit them in the funny spot or perform a crit on even just one of the enemies. Still a fun game, I liked it alot. The gameplay is something I enjoy and the story is pretty epic. Although one thing I didn't like was how the final boss music wasn't as epic as the final boss music in persona 3. Oh well.

After that I picked up Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor. Is there a trend? I think so. I might be going SMT for a while. I can see why they're the third most popular game series after Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest currently. Back story of this is You're a silent protagonist who is in high school in Tokyo.(Whoa not a transfer student?! I can't play this anymore!) Who one day got a call from your cousin to meet up with him in front of his apartment. You meet in front of his apartment, but your cousin isn't there, but two of your friends are. Apparently he gave one of your friends threew COMPs, DS replicas with the abilities of an iPod touch really. One of your friends is a hacking genius and boots the comps causing them to summon demons from them. Shortly after, the Yaminote Circle of Tokyo is put into a lockdown where no one can leave. There is a cult of weird orange costume people called the Shomonkai that preaches that the lockdown is an ordeal by God and we, mankind, must overcome this ordeal. The silent protagonist lives through the lockdown trying to find a way to survive.
The gameplay of this game is quite different in that it's like a tactical battle system, where each chara forms are group of that chara and two demons. But upon attacking another unit, they enter a turn based battle system that lasts one round of attacks from both sides. However, if you hit someone where it makes them cry or perform a critical, you get a status called 'extra turn', and they'll lose that status if they have it. If you have extra turn, then the battle will last one more turn and only those with extra turn can act that turn. This is a nice game with an intricate storyline in which all questions become wrapped up the more paths you complete. I enjoyed playing it and I still am playing it since I haven't completed all the paths.

And lastly to this wall of text is what happened so far this break! I punched out the lights. I stood up stretching and my fist accidentally made rough contact with the lights, shattering it, causing shards of glass to cover me. Needless to say, that hand is now a bunch of cuts. I managed to clean myself of all glass and off the floor, but I earlier yesterday I found a shard of glass in my hair. I forgot to check my hair for glass. Skillz bro. So that meant I slept with shards of glass in my hair? How did I not feel it? I guess it's because my hair is badass.
Until next time, whenever that may be.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

El Psy Congroo

Hey all. After the super long break i had from posting on here, i'm semi back. Alot has happened in between now and then, but to start off the first post in this year's October, I'll glamorize an anime I watched mid September.

The anime's called Stein's; Gate. It's actually an anime adaptation of a visual novel of the same name. It's about this eighteen year old physics high school graduate  and his super hacker friend who discovers how to send text messages to the past. Like most vn's out there, the first half is essentially a slice of life kind of thing where things get serious about halfway through. Although the first episode is quite serious. I liked it alot and i think I didn't make it sound as awesome as it is, so I'll say that this anime is awesome.

On another note, I finally got the first Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia. Many posts ago I had one on the second one, well I have the first one now. I'm not exactly done with it as I just finished the first fifth of the game. It's about a guy, Lyner, who journeys across his world, known as Ar Ciel, on a quest to save Ar Ciel from a virus that has gone rampant. I'm probably making this sound like a generic rpg, and it probably is, and there really isn't much to brag about this game except for the many and bad innuendos this game is well known for.

I think that covers about all that this has to go over for. Until next time, whenever that'll be.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Walking the earth on the palm of my hand

Last full day of my sophomore year. Two more finals to take care of then done for the year. It's coming to an end already. All this. To think, back in February and March I wanted to go home really badly because of some major accomplishments I've heard of back then. Since then, however, it's been growing weaker. I actually don't want this year to end as weird as it sounds. But all good things must come to an end. It was fun this year, many people who'll be leaving this place and moving on with their life, others who will remain behind and share more moments together. But with the departure of people means the arrival of new people. Maybe next year there'll be better people. Who knows?

In the gateway which hold the vision of the future seems fascinating, but becomes unstable since of how much life changes during our youth. Our future is uncertain, we cannot rule out a single thing just because of a stupid idea or feeling someone once had at some point. There is a lot of possible things out there.

However, in between now and then, there have been a lot which has happened, i mean after all, it was a whole month's time. But... no matter how hard i try to remember, it's pretty difficult. uhhh....lessee... I....umm... crap what did I do earlier this month? There were friday night magics. those were fun. There were also movies we watched. Right, continuing, uhhh... wow. i think that's just about it. well, if we minus all the time I spent hanging out with friends. Great times have came and within that, we've all found a little happiness we all can call our own. I believe that is the meaning we should get out of the dreams we hold. To find what it is  that drives us, to achieve that same feeling of meaning.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Chiisana Mahou

Hi all, been back after a month and a half away. Anyways, some fun things has happened in between now and then.

Firstly, I kinda got back into Final Fantasy Tactics for the first playstation.  It's a fun turn based strategy that has classes which skills can be obtained by spending 'job points' that one earns in a battle. So I managed to create a team of teleporting ninjas all with dragon spirit. In other words, they all pwn. Also one of them has math skills.

Another thing, I've started on a little side project that I have named -A Short Interlude- because that is what it is. It's something i'm working on in visual c# in the programming environment of visual studios which is actually a bad idea since I could use XNA for better results. But i'm working in visual studios for now to help me get a grasp on programming. So far the actual thing has a new game button, a working options button, but nothing inside the options work, the exit button and all the menus are up and going to and fro between them are done correctly. I still have to implement a save/load function which I could do now in the crappiest way to save so I may do that but then replace it with serialization once i learn how. There's still many faults in the project itself, but I'll cover them as I go along.

On another note, In my universe i've created I may want to throw in another character in there. This person is a person who has some form of neural degeneration. More than likely it'll be the prion disease. This person however has in some way found a mecha suit that when put on, strenthens neural signals and closes the holes created from the disease. The extra boost in neural activity gives the person super dexterity(not sure if that's how it works, will check to see if possible). And since in a mecha suit, gets robotic strenth. and a jet pack. This person I believe will exist during the Eissa timeline and well into the angels and demons wars. whatever that means.

As inspiration to that character goes to the anime Mahoromatic. The anime is about an android who is close to being unoperational. Since the android is a combat android, the android's life span of about one month at the beginning is increased greatly when the android is relieved of it's duty and becomes to about 13 months. What the android does with it's remaining time is as the android wishes. Which is to become the maid of the son of the android's late commander. It's really a sci-fi slice of life with a bit of robots in it. an amazingly fun and needless anime, but it's fun.

Today(Yesterday as of 3 minutes) I went down to the festival held in my current town of residence which is held once every year. It was fun. There were many things. People were selling things, there was lots of people wandering and such. There was even bands playing. One of the bands were called Samurai Pizza Cats. They were pretty awesome. Later that day there was a concert with bands showing up like a 'Michael Jackson cover band' and Pitbull. It was quite fun and entertaining. The music really goes through you. All in all, today was a very pointless day, but it was fun, and that makes up for it.

And that's my wall of text for today, until my next post, whenever that is.

Monday, March 14, 2011

When everything looks like a nail, you really need to get yourself a hammer.

Hi guys, it's not even a month and I'm back posting on here.

Well, I haven't really done much in between now and then, but I've at least have something to post here.
I've only watched one anime in between then, it's called CANAAN, it's about an assassin whose purpose is to accomplish mission given and to protect one person. It takes place in Shanghai, China, but the story also revolves around two people from Japan who are journalists sent to Shanghai to take part in the anti-terrorist meeting being held there. There's elements of the supernatural and sci-fi ness with much to do with mystery. It's like a futuristic mystery really. Well, not super futuristic, but more modernized than futuristic. There's alot of action in each episode and they all are very entertaining. The story is well built, although there are a few plot holes placed among the series, but i think they left those there because it's assumable  what might have taken place. I recommend this series to those who enjoy a good mystery, supernatural, or action anime.

On another note, I've been quite addicted to melty blood for a while, I'm slowly getting better at it, apparently I'm maining with Arcueid, which isn't too bad, but she's not great for beginners, but i'm starting to get the hang of using her. I'm able to rack up an 11-12 hit combo for a 1/3 of the life bar as opposed to my usual 8-10 for 1/5 of the life bar.
And on my update of battle moon wars, I still have yet to finish it, I haven't got that far because of the time i need to dedicate to my work, melty blood, staying up late, wasting time, hanging out, and eating to actually get past one mission every now and then. I'll get there eventually.

Well, that's all I've got for today, see you guys whenever. Maybe it may not even be another month, amirite?

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Hi all. It's only been about a month and a half since I've last posted on here. I've done quite the bit since there and now. I'm currently in Operating systems lab writing on my blog. That's totally now exactly what I had in mind for an opsys lab. Oh well, I mean, it is the hardest class in the computer science major. Well, i am failing the class a bit, but that's only because I haven't been up my game in the studying field. I'm doing fine in all my other classes.

Over the time in between then and now, I've watched plenty of animes and played a bunch of games. Firstly, Melty Blood, it's a fun fighting game that has many limitations and abilities that makes it a balanced game. For a spin off, this is a game that can easily qualify for being a very excellent fighters.
Also, I got and watched the animes for fate/stay night, which isn't too bad, but it does combines the storyline for all three senarios of the game itself. It does hide some facts, but are more straightforward about it's other subtleties, like archer's identity. Although it's well put for an anime that looks like it was just going to be an anime. They soon shot out a movie about four years later that is the unlimited blade works senario. Which follows it almost exactly. Now gotta wait to see if that last senario actually comes out.
To add to my list, I've also watched Kara No Kyoukai which is an anime whose story was written by the same person that written both fate/stay night and tsukihime. Each episode is more like a movie and covers about a chapter in the story that Nasu(the creator) written. The main character is someone who can see the 'lines of death' and the story revolves around her and the happenings of the city that she lives in. In the first episode, there is a mystery that revolves around a chain suicide happening by teenage girls who jumps of the roof of the same building but all on different days. It's a fun series that makes one think and as the story progresses you learn more and more about the characters and the whys of the story.
Another anime that I have watched is Death Note. This well known anime has a reason for being well known and it's not because it's like naruto or bleach. This anime series is about a high schooler who has a strong sense of justice who finds a notebook that can cause the death of the person whose name is written in the notebook. It's an amazing anime that really is addicting the first episode. I definitely recommend this watch.
Right now my current game i'm playing is Battle Moon Wars. It's a little spin off just like melty blood, but instead of a fighters, it's a turn based tactical  strategy rpg. I'm only so far into it, but it's a little fun game. While I can't really change much of anything regarding moves and classes, I get points to spend after every attack/kill on the character's stats, skills and abilities.So it'll be quite the time consuming thing for me.

Other that that, i think that's all I have for  this post. See you guys in about a month, amirite? :D???
Until next time.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Unlimited Blade Works: do you have enough swords, king of heroes?!

Hi everyone, Back in about a month. I should really change that notice up top to about once a month or so. Cause that is what it seems like it's going to be.

First note, back at college, one week into j-term. j-term is a january term, it's the semester in between fall and spring, where we only have one class for the entirety of January. The credits count towards our spring semester though. My class is pretty easy, a simple class where we have to read a chapter in the text everyday day, watch a movie during class, then write a discussion paper on said movie about the chapter that we read the night previous. Really easy.

It's alot more peaceful here than it is at home. At least no one is yelling and screaming twenty-four seven here. All that peaceful is probably goign to end soon after j-term is over though. tons of work to do. But until then.

Right now I've came up with a few changes in my storyline that i'm writing. New characters, some old ones gone. many are revamped, made better, given actual drives and goals, personalities are further refined. Some new changes in the world and how certain things work. It seems to be a pretty solid story now.Haven't started writing the actual stories yet, it's all still planning.

Watched a few animes, played a few games too. Over winter break I went and played Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, it's a very fun game, considering that I was a fan and player of the first one, which was amazing. I also played and finished Tsukihime and Kagetsu Tohya. and the plus disc. But that's besides the point, I finished watching the GTO anime, which was pretty awesome. Although I kinda preferred the ending of the manga compared to the ending of the anime. The anime's ending was sorta like a last minute thing that they had to put on all of a sudden cause they were going to produce more episodes, but then suddenly they got cut or something. It was kinda sad how they missed most of the things that happened in the manga, but hey, they did the best they could, right?

Well, in any case, after I finish my homework for tonight imma try out melty blood. The spin off/sequel to tsukihime and kagetsu tohya. Until next time!