Floor'd !

I SHOULD BE SLEEPING

2009-12-24T18:36:55Z

HHHGH LETTER BEE IS SO GOOD I DON'T EVEN. If I was more awesome I'd try my hand at playing Zaji hhhhhnghhh

It's a bit early but I'm not gonna be around much tomorrow...

2009-12-24T04:02:28Z

auuugh

2009-12-22T16:47:34Z

I swear, outside of an AntiForm picture, I am never drawing a Kingdom Hearts picture again. Damn you Nomura and your love for zippers and belts and I can't make sense of where half of them are going and asdf;lkasd;fk I'm going to have to do this at least 20 times. You don't really notice exactly how weird his design choices are until you try to draw it and you're wondering where the hell everything connects. At least by the time I finish this picture, I'll be really good at belts and zippers :| The hardest part is trying to convert his style into my style, especially when I'm not familiar with the clothing design yet. Oh how I wish the designs were simple like TWEWY's. And Sora and Roxas have... like. Maybelline eyelashes. Seriously.

NTS: redo the hands when I'm done.

holy crap it's nearly christmas already??

2009-12-21T16:54:20Z

ALRIGHT this post is going to have significant tl;dr about Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 and a little for 358/2 Days, along with some tangentially related gaming mechanics and writing stuff. I have a love-meh relationship with Square most of the time, and this is no exception.

--

Alright. Kingdom Hearts. Remember that I'm playing on Expert mode, so even the mooks can be pretty trying occasionally. First of all, let's start with the Battle Record.

Battle Record
Heartless defeated: 4631
Times defeated: 50
Attacks deflected: 1043
Times hit by an enemy: 2781
Total item usage: 24
Party member knockouts: 250
Curative spells cast on friend: 70

The Bad (or rather, mildly to very annoying)

1) The goddamned camera aughhhhhhhhhh. I've gotten a lot better at navigating the camera than before due to 358/2 Days, but in some places, it's especially annoying. Overall, I wasn't bothered by it, since I learnt how to deal with it, but the terrible camera is most noticeable in small, enclosed areas (inside the pirate ship of Neverland, parts of Monstro) and the really large bosses (Ursula, dragon!Malificent, house!Oogie Boogie), and even worse when you have large enemies in small, enclosed areas (the Behemoths at the End of the World). Granted, a lot of games have similar camera problems under the same conditions, just... usually not so bad that I can't see anything. But I also have issues with the lock-on camera, which is sometimes a lifesaver and other times a camera screw, which was pretty noticeable in the Gold Match against the Ice Titan. On the one hand, I want to use Lock-On so I can see what the Ice Titan is doing instead of looking at Sora's butt all the time. But the angle of it is just slightly off such that I can't see the icicles that rise from the ground. I got it down to the last bar of health before I died ;; TRAGIC. Because...

2) I can't skip the cutscenes. Absolutely terrible when you die to a boss with a forever long cutscene. I'm looking at you, solo Hollow Bastion Riku fight. And dragon!Malificent (which wasn't as bad as the former, but still terrible). Sort of related, but some of the not-quite-cutscenes on the gummi-ships were a little annoying, because the game would just sit there for a while, even after all the text has appeared and you're hitting X to continue talking.

3) The final battle against 'Ansem'. The main reason this was terrible is due to the flying mechanics. Not only is it difficult to ensure you're at the correct altitude in order to hit him, there's the fact that Guard, Dodgeroll, Super Glide and jumping (your only defensive/evasive maneouvres outside of attacking and Aero) are unavailable to you. So it becomes really difficult to not take damage. Which is really terrible because I'm playing on Expert. There were so many times I was down on 1HP and got super worried that I'd die and have to sit through all those cutscenes again. HORROR. Luckily it didn't happen. In general, free movement fights are a pain; I like my feet firmly planted on the ground, 'k? Except when I'm in the air. I'm pretty glad there wasn't anything major with free movement in KHII, but kind of disappointed that they'd brought it back in 358/2 Days.

4) Riku's pants.

The Good (which should be called, the mixed)
1) The party AI is actually rather excellent (aside from a few instances, like when you're fighting against Black Fungii that are stone formed). And by rather excellent, I mean that your party members generally know how to take care of themselves and are actually helpful, which is something all party AI should be. It starts to truly shine once your party members get MP Rage and Second Chance. Second Chance especially for Donald, which basically results in him never, ever dying. Although... why is Sora the last to learn Second Chance? No, don't answer that; I have a pretty good idea why. The key is in being able to utilise your party to the fullest, and generally my combat will instinctively revolve around that.

Goofy is really excellent at stunning enemies or keeping them in combo lock, which makes it easy for Sora to finish them off, since Goofy doesn't have much killing power. Donald is an exceptional lifesaver, because no matter what he's doing, if your health drops to critical, he will heal you. Usually within the second. Basically he prioritises healing with Sora > Donald > Goofy (exactly how I'd prioritise it ♥), and if you all have Second Chance, you should pretty much never die. And with MP Rage, he'll never run out of mana. Ever. Even while spamming attack/healing spells !

Basically, even when the AI does mess up and makes your party members run into attacks, your party is able to take care of themselves. They don't need to be baby sat, which if the worst thing to have with AI controlled characters and appears too often.

2) Expert mode is incredibly fun. I know it sounds kind of masochistic, especially when I say I'm notoriously bad at games that aren't turn based RPGs, but I've sort of come to expect Square games to be easy. But I found Expert mode to be about the right level of difficulty for me. Incredibly difficult at times, until I actually figure out how to defeat the enemies. And, to be honest, I find that pretty much all the enemies in Kingdom Hearts (yes, even Sephiroth) fight fair. There's no insane leap of logic in figuring out how to defend or evade attacks. Once you figure out how to defeat the enemies, it's a piece of cake. And there's a certain sense of euphoria, an andrenalin rush, fighting enemies that you know can kill you so easily.

And I guess it's in part because I feel like I actually have a sense of skill instead of simply button mashing, because playing on Expert mode without grinding at all means that I have to make use of the options besides Attack in order to beat my enemies. It's most notable in the solo fight against Riku-Ansem, who, without trigger reflexes on my guard button and Dodge Rolling like crazy when he enters his 3rd and final phase makes the fight ridiculously hard to win (I... I had to rewatch the REALLY LONG cutscene 5 times before I figured out that Guarding and Counterattacking is the way to beat this guy). So satisfying when I beat him, though.

3) Jack Skellington is the sexiest guest partner alive. Incredibly tall, skinny character? Check. Wears a suit? Check. An affable skeleton? Check. Sexiest stats ever, topping both Donald and Goofy's? Check. I'm actually going to watch the Nightmare Before Christmas because of him hahaha what excellent timing. And Sora's costume in Halloween Town is the best. As a side note, Hades from Hercules seems pretty cool, too.

4) The kids are ridiculously cute. I guess there's some truth to Japan being better at kid heroes, and I think it applies here. I'm especially fond of the Kairi Riku Sora trio, because you get to see that childishness. Even with serious events going on, there's still that child-like quality to them. I think what also made me like the plot parts of the game more is that there's, like. a sense of humour. It's kind of something I've noticed in the games I've been playing recently, that the writing doesn't stick to one tone all the time. And more often than not, this is something that's beneficial to the writing. It's sort of like... life is ever changing, right? And life can still be pretty funny and light hearted, even during dark moments. And I think having that kind of natural humour seguing into plot makes the plot and characterisation feel more natural, and the story feel more real.

This is partially a preference thing, in that I generally like to laugh when I play games or watch movies, but that kind of natural humour from the characters really helps me to enjoy the game I'm playing. The other games that spring to mind are Persona 4, TWEWY and Tales of the Abyss (terrible pacing aside, from the latter). On the other hand, I get a bit :| about things that start off funny and happy and stuff, but then as plot progresses and things get worse, the game gets draggy and humourless and stays that way. Just as I'd get bored with a game that's constantly trying to be funny (albeit less quickly), when the game becomes draggy and humourless, the story becomes monotonous in terms of my emotional response to what's happening. Monotonous is the last thing you want your player to feel when it comes to the story you want your game to tell.

And this pretty much applies to any form of storytelling, not just games.

The Neutral (aka the Everything Else)
1) I was surprised they didn't make use of Triangle, outside of L1 hotkeys (but then why wasn't there a O hotkey?). I was especially surprised, since I had to scroll through the menu to use those AP skills like uhhh Sonic Blade or Strike Raid, which made them too fiddly for my liking (and I preferred to keep MP for healing) so I didn't use them at all. I was kind of surprised I couldn't put items on hotkey either ! Which I'm pretty glad they changed in the future games. I was pretty confused that for the Mega- class items, that they still had a choose-who-to-heal menu when the only option was ALL. Maybe it's a muscle memory thing, so they decided to keep it in?

2) The game felt short? Maybe because I didn't really do the optional stuff (gummi ship stuff, finding all the dalmations and trinities. And to a lesser extent, the Gold and Platinum matches in the Coliseum, but that's because I couldn't be bothered sitting through the cutscenes over and over and over and over again whenever I lost), but I managed to finish KH a lot sooner than I expected. It could also be because I spent minimal time grinding (only grinded once for the fight against dragon!Malificent), so most of my time was spent advancing plot/fighting in the Coliseum/clowning around in 100 Acre Wood. But yeah, I hit endgame a lot sooner than I was expecting. It's not necessarily a bad thing, just surprising.

3) Aerials are far quicker than ground attacks, but have limited usage. Since I came from playing 358/2 Days first, I was kind of expecting aerials to be really overpowered, but they weren't, primarily because of Sora's limited reach in the first game. Like, he's got some AT skills (Vortex) which are supposed to quickly bridge the distance between him and the enemy with the attack, but in practice, it doesn't bring him close enough quickly enough. In general, Sora isn't as flaily as Roxas was in 358/2 Days, and I kind of under estimated how much of said flailiness was crucial in aerial comboing in 358/2 Days. See, the problem is that if Sora doesn't hit the enemy when you attack in the air, he just ends up dropping to the ground, which leaves him vulnerable. And considering how small and fast moving some of the enemies are, he ends up missing a lot. For flying enemies, generally it's best to stand underneath and slightly to the side of them so you can Vortex up and then aerial combo, buuut, unfortunately, it doesn't work so well with enemies that fly close to the ground, where Sora will go for a ground combo instead... and. miss. Because their hitbox is above Sora's hitbox for his ground combos. SIGH.

4) General trend of battle difficulty on Expert mode were like this, SUPER HARD in the beginning, when you have very limited options. Generally I find games are either like this because of said limited options, or they tend to be really easy in the beginning because you have limited options and the game makers are like YEAHHH LET'S MAKE THIS EASY. WHO CARES SINCE YOU'LL BE GETTING BETTER STUFF LATER ANYWAY. Then the game gets easy for most of the time, with a significant spike just before endgame, before settling in easy again.

5) It's pretty obvious that Kingdom Hearts is the first of the series. Lol a kind of stupid statement, but just by looking at the overall design of the game, it suffers the usual gameplay problems of 'first' games that are part of a series that feature similar gameplay throughout. There's often numerous minor gameplay things that you don't really notice are missing until you go from a later game to an earlier game. I've already mentioned some of them, but there's also a few other things off the top of my head:

- when Sora's guarding, it doesn't last until the end of the enemy's combo, unlike Roxas' guard in 358/2 Days
- if you cast in the air but touch the ground before the spell comes out, you'll hear Sora yelling the relevant spell name thing, but the spell's effects won't actually happen. I don't remember having this problem in 358/2 Days, but that may be because of other slightly different mechanics.
- Dodge Roll doesn't deflect attacks, but Sora has a brief period of invulnerability to attacks that can be passed through (Sephiroth's sword slashes, Hades spinning arm flames, Oogie Boogie's revolving blades, etc.)

And I guess the reason why 'first' games are generally easy to identify is partly due to the fact 'first' games are attempting to create something, while subsequent games tend to innovate and improve upon the previous in the series. While that isn't to say that 'first' games aren't an attempt to innovate games in a particular genre (because often they are), but often they also need to bring something new in order to stand out from the crowd. And sometimes that 'new' thing is rather excellent as it was here, but as with all new things, there are always improvements that can be made because design can't account for everything and doesn't forsee every problem that may occur.

6) I actually feel kind of neutral towards the Disney worlds. I guess it's because they're like a retelling of their respective canons with meddling from Sora and co. (what happened to non-interference?) and Malificent and co.. And I know that's the point and usually I'm all for these kinds of things, but for the Disney things I did know... it felt bland. I guess this is in part because I keep on mentally comparing the scenes to how they were from their canons, and the performance was generally less WITH FEELING and PASSION and stuff. Which was a huge surprise for me, personally, because I loved visiting the Disney worlds in 358/2 Days. I think the difference here is that the story is primarily focused on Roxas and his various partners, who generally either help or observe the Disney characters or interact with for brief periods of time. While in Kingdom Hearts, generally the story revolves around the Disney characters for the time they were in the Disney world, and Sora and co. just happened to be around to give them a helping hand. I guess maybe it's because we just see less evidence of how these world visits affect Sora than we do with Roxas. And while that's fitting with their characters (that Sora is less affected by these visits), despite the game's message about every heart being connected (and I can totally get behind that), I wasn't feeling connected.

7) Lol Cloud and Squall. Kind of amused by their appearance, and even more amused by it in KH2, but I'll get to that later. However, their duo fight? Cloud was so much easier to handle than Squall. Squall only being utterly unmanageable when he's in limit break form that never ends. He swings way too fast and has way too much range with his huge purple throbbing cock, making him hard to approach/guard/dodge. While Cloud, despite having a huge sword, is really predictable, so he's easy to deal with. Yuffie, on the other hand...

8) It's really interesting seeing maps I was familiar with from 358/2 Days. I guess for most people, playing 358/2 Days would evoke a sense of nostalgia, since they'd be playing maps familiar to them from KH1 (and 2). But for me it was like... reverse nostalgia? Sort of like... heyyy that's Agrabah! Heyyy I know this place from the future.

9) Why does no one comment on how weird Sora, Donald and Goofy look?

--

On Kingdom Hearts II. I also played on Proud mode, since I didn't have time to make 100% completion, and like with the original KH, I need that extra difficulty to feel entertained.

Battle Report
Game LV: Proud Mode
Completion of Jiminy's Journal: 88%
Completion of Gummi Routes: 38% (hurr hurr)
Healed Party Members: 107 times
Saved by Mickey: 1 time (by accident sob it was on 1 HP, too)
Most used Form: Valor Form 31 times
Used AntiForm: 10 times
Most used Summon: Chicken Little 3 times

Okay this time, let's start with

The Good
1) SKATEBOARDING. BEST THING IN THE WHOLE GAME I swear. Vaguely amused that Roxas' skateboard was white with a black design, while Sora's was black with white designs.

2) Good stuff that was retained from the original Kingdom Hearts. i.e. good AI (though Donald is slightly less of a lifesaver due to changed game mechanics), Proud mode being fun and Jack Skellington being the sexiest thing ever (except he's probably even more sexy in here).

3) AntiForm. The sexiest thing ever I swear. I'd forgotten how much I love characters with the movement of feral creatures, and combined with that darkness? HHHHHH hits my pings so hard.

4) The week long prologue. I was actually pretty fond of Roxas' week in the virtual Twilight Town, maybe because I'd already warmed up to his character from 358/2 Days and knew who he was, and because I kind of have an extreme fondness for slice of life type scenes.

But... you know, I couldn't help but feel incredibly sad during his summer vacation. Both in Kingdom Hearts II and 358/2 Days while he wasn't with Sora, he really got the short end of the stick all the time. And... while he was friends with and accepted by Hayne, Pence and Olette, I couldn't help but get the feeling he didn't quite fully fit in. Just judging by body language and distance in some scenes. I don't blame Roxas for having GRAHHHHHHHHHHH reactions near the end of his vacation and 358/2 Days, because I'd pretty much be going FUCK YOU GUYS as well. Buuut, I think part of that sadness was from the whole, you shouldn't exist schtick as well. I've talked briefly about it before, but yeah, I dislike the feelings I get when I essentially get told I don't exist, and I guess I extend those feelings to Roxas. It's not quite the same, but it's still a sense of empathy/sympathy. The whole "Looks like my summer vacation is... over..." was the heartbreaker. I didn't cry, but I just had this overwhelming feeling of sadness in my heart.

It was actually really... jarring? bizzare? interesting? when the game got back to Sora. During the whole Roxas sequence (and 358/2 Days), I was looking at someone who mirrored Sora's movements in KH1 perfectly. From the way Sora walked, the way Sora jumped, the way Sora opened chests, the way Sora guarded, the way Sora attacked... that was how Roxas moved as well. But when you get back to playing Sora... he moves completely differently. It's almost like a statement, excentuated by the fact Sora's clothes don't fit him anymore, that Sora grew, even in the time he was asleep. But Roxas didn't. Like, that he was physically stuck in statis at that point in Sora's time and can't change (although he wasn't as short as Sora was at the time??). Maybe that's a property of the Organisation Nobodies, just that I haven't played enough canon to know for sure?

I think a lot of my experience in the early parts of KHII has been coloured by the fact I know Roxas is Sora's Nobody. There's a few small details that were nice touches. Like with 358/2 Days, Roxas has no heart when he dies (although for some reason, in KH2 Sora doesn't either?), and Sora mentions there are 5, no, 6 of us, that will beat up the Heartless, and the aforementioned mirrored movements. I wonder how I would've reacted if I didn't know anything about it?

THAT SAID, it did get a little draggy, because you're essentially getting a lot of plot you won't understand heaped on you. It probably would've been more annoying for someone who was less interested in Roxas.

The Bad
1) Plot. Okay, where to start. Again, I was a bit 'meh' about the Disney worlds (even if Pride Land had some of the funnest four legged action. Although, wielding the keyblade with your mouth?). However, I feel they did a liiittle bit more in KH2 for Sora and co.'s characterisation than KH1 did in these worlds. At least, in the first visits to the worlds, where everything's awesome and fun and Sora gets to be a pirate and is super excited about that!!1! Buuut, at the same time, outside of Roxas' week, I didn't really feel any connection to the serious parts of the story. Aaand this is why I have a 'meh' relationship with Square games in general. They start to lose the humour as soon as the story gets serious, and have a tendency towards being ~*dramatic*~. Which. Really doesn't do it for me. Not to mention, there were a few WHY WOULD YOU EVEN DO THAT moments aaand just BLAH. I mean. OH NO WE CAN'T TAKE ON ALL THESE HEARTLESS but then shortly afterwards Sora is CUTTING A BULIDING INTO HALF. Not to mention DEFLECTING A HUNDRED LASERS when usually you can barely deflect 5. I like RuleOfCool as much as the next person, but this is when the story and gameplay segregation becomes way too much, and you get this giant disconnect between the two. It becomes less of a game and more like a movie that's sometimes interrupted by someone you have to beat up. And while that's kind of what lots of JRPGs are like, it's like having the cutscenes tell you one story, while the fighting parts contradict it. The latter half of the game, just. I couldn't believe in it. Just like most other Square games. SIGH.

I think the main drive for me finishing the game was to see if there was more Roxas and Naminé, actually.

The Neutral (also known as the section I put topics that had both good and bad and would be a pain in the ass to read if I split them up)

1) Gameplay. I know that a lot of the issues I had with the first game were fixed. Most obvious fixes were for the camera and cutscenes along with an additional O hotkey and the ability to put items on hotkey, but also Sora's ability to close in on the enemies and the range of his swings were drastically improved as well. Aerial attacks were also a bit of a game breaker, as many bosses that have hitstun (i.e. all the humanoid bosses) are extremely suceptible to aerial attacks. This is primarily due to the fact that most attacks target the ground, but also because (if you're like me and not playing Final Mix) you're only non-attacking approach to bosses that deflects attacks is AirDodge. Aaand, for the attacks that also hit the air, if you jump high enough, you can position yourself in such a way that your first swing is directly above the boss' head, and since Sora's first swing is in a circle, you'll effectively parry any attack coming your way and continue your combo after the boss' finished theirs. EVEN BETTER is that Sora's air combos tend to lift the enemy off the ground, so you're pretty much guarunteed not to get interrupted (at least, from melee attacks), since the time it takes for the boss to fall to the ground after your combo ends is generally enough for you to take evasive action. So yeah, aerials were ridiculously overpowered in this game. Even works on Sephiroth and Xemnas' final form if you're actually able to land a hit on the teleporting bastard.

THAT SAID, I'm really disappointed they removed Dodge Roll in the standard Kingdom Hearts II. There are many, many bosses Dodge Roll would've been extremely helpful in (Xigbar comes most readily to mind, as well as the final fight with Xemnas), and additionally, half the time I spend twiddling my thumbs while Sora gets combo'd because I can't do anything. Aerial recovery actually did very little, because half the time it'd just bounce you back up in order to get hit again, but if you don't have aerial recovery, you'd get comboed and HHHHHH and you can't go from an aerial recovery into an air dodge quickly enough. I actually got a bit cheesed off at the Xaldin fight, because when he does his spear dragon attack, aside from Reflect (which sometimes I couldn't use because lol Mana charge), there was absolutely nothing I could do to avoid it. Or, if there was a way to avoid it, it certainly didn't have its roots in logic. Also, reaction commands. I have a bit of a okay-terrible relationship with it. I like them because they add some extra cool things you wouldn't normally be able to do without them, but in some (read: many) cases, it turns into a "mash Triangle to not die" or "mash Triangle for massive damage". It gets really bad when you need to use a Reaction command to win the battle and then you use a drive form and... get AntiForm, which can't use Reaction commands. GREAT! It's happened to me more than once, due to me trying to level Valor form at the same time during bossfights.

Aaand speaking of button mashing, that's pretty much what the gameplay in KHII boils down to. There's like. almost absolutely no point in trying to guard or take evasive manoeouvres because in this game, offense really is the best defense. All the attacks that really hurt? You can't guard against those anyway, and generally have to use a Reaction Command or Dodge Ro- OH WAIT, THERE IS NO DODGE ROLL. You might be able to jump out of the way or use Reflect (which doesn't even work on the endgame stuff), but in Proud mode at least, some of the attacks just come out way too fast for that to happen. So really, in the end, generally comboing things to death is your best option in terms of not dying. Because the bosses will be trying to combo you to death as well. I'm pretty neutral on the Mana Charge system. While I do like the quirky mana system in KH1, I do admit that because of the other AT skills, it was almost impossible to die while Donald was alive. The mana system in 2 made it a little more difficult to gauge how many spells you had left, and the fact cure ate all your mana was ummm... initially shocking, but an interesting addition to gameplay that I'm chill with now. It was a bit of a pain that mana didn't go up with hits or regenerate over time (except in mana charge), but MP rage helped with that a little. I did notice that MP rage's effectiveness is less in this game, though.

So yeah, I like some of the improvements they made, but dislike the button-mashing fest it became. Neutral on the magic system, since I like both versions.

2) I have the urge to draw Sora and Roxas doing the Dancing Dragon from Avatar. If I find time, I might do it.

I was gonna say more stuff, but I think I'll end it here, for now.

--

Overall, they were games I enjoyed, but I can't say I'm terribly interested in Kingdom Hearts material because I just can't get into the plot. I'll add that I'm enjoying the manga adaptations because they're so cracky xD

I guess it's that time again?

2009-12-14T23:13:46Z

The How's My Driving? Meme

Considering returning to acRO (Singaporean RO server) with just one character (seeing that dual clienting isn't allowed anymore). It's really 25/75 for returning. On the one hand, there's ONslaught, which is wicked fun. On the other hand... there is just so much more I could be doing with the time. And to be honest, the only reason I don't get bored is due to the sense of... exhilaration? from clawing my way to victory against lag and low agi (my primaries have always been archer classes). I mean, it was pretty nice being able to teach some people the usefulness of frame cancelling (lots of people accidentally do it, but not many do it consistently and on command), and it was really fun mob training against seals (back when there were a lot on the beach) with my wizard without needing firewall/icewall...

HHHHHH I could probably get away with playing on a super casual basis, but the downloading and updating part will be such a pain. Hell, I probably can't download the full thing myself anyway, seeing that it's over 1 gig.

Edit: Also against my better judgement, I retried playing Kingdom Hearts before finishing Ico. This time around, the camera didn't piss me off at all. I guess it's because 358/2 Days made me accustomed to the camera, although against some of the goddamned bats the camera does some funky things.

Also, I'm playing on Expert. It means that I lose in 2-3 hits from Riku on Destiny Island. I have no idea if doing so nets me any bonuses, but right now it feels a lot like 358/2 Days did when I was playing on Proud mode, i.e. really hard when you have no defensive/evasive maneouvres at all. And, unlike 358/2 Days, you can't really abuse dying to your advantage. OH WELL.

tenshinoakuma @ 2009-12-14T11:45:00

2009-12-14T03:45:54Z

Stuff is good! Thanks guys ♥ I just have to see how things turn out now. And for some reason, as I finish games (just finished PMD2: Explorers of Sky as well) I seem to be getting even more games to play :| I don't know how people who own so many games handle it, seriously.

Also, please convince me that it's a bad idea to get back into playing Ragnarok Online. Please.

And now for something different!

2009-12-12T15:06:13Z

Spent the whole day gaming because I wasn't in the mood to do anything else, so I played Time Hollow from start to end. A pretty average game and not really something if you want a point and click adventure game that's meaty with the art/story/characterisation. It's also really easy to figure out what you need to do, so it ends up being a pretty short game; it took me about 7 hours to complete. I primarily picked it up for time manipulation shenanigans, and it does most of the time hole stuff pretty well. But in the end there's probably only two instances that stood out to me:

1) When you do your timestop thing and try to examine one of the girl's skirt/boobs, the main character is like NO NO NO I CAN'T DO THAT. Or NO THAT'S NOT A GOOD IDEA.
2) The main character getting stabbed. That was pretty hot.

There's also a cute shotaro boy. Complete with cute dog!

All in all, Time Hollow's a pretty average game, but if you've got nothing better to do, it's not a bad game to pick up. There's a few cute things in it, too, so yeah.

Man, now I'm drowning in a flood of notifs

2009-12-10T16:13:17Z

I'm guessing cast strength is supposed to be how well they work without castmates? (instead of... how many castmates you've got right now)

[current]

character: Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu (20) [fallingjunkyard]
series: The World Ends With You, theskytides AU
muse strength: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ (Ridiculously strong. Pretty much any situation, it's easy to find his response to. Just that anything particularly manipulative, I have a few problems with. You could say that he's my primary, and anytime I'm unsure of how to react ICly, I tend to default to Joshua. It gets... problematic.)
cast strength: ■ □ □ □ □ (TWEWY is great in that pretty much all the characters can work really well on their own and they AU really well, especially when you're a lone canon warrior like I was at the very beginning. Add the fact that Joshua is a fiercely independent guy, who does what he wants, when he wants to for bonus points. But while Joshua doesn't need a Mr H specifically, he needs a Mr H figure in his life)
plotting capabilities: ■ ■ ■ □ □ (Pretty high, but I'm too lazy to make use of it fully)
likelihood of drop: □ □ □ □ □ (There had been a time where I considered dropping him, even with all his CR. It's because he's such a slithery outy character that no matter what I build up while RPing, it'd be so easy to drop it all. It just goes to show that even with a lot of extremely fun IC interaction, it won't hold me back from dropping. That said, it was during a time I felt RPing was a drag and a time where I wasn't feeling the best, so it's a good thing I just weathered it through; as I've said before, I'm only ever dropping Joshua when I drop RPing)

character: Atsuro Kihara (18) [justplugit]
series: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, theskytides AU
muse strength: ■ ■ ■ □ □ (I have his personality and thoughts (mostly) down, but I still have to work on his voice. Add the fact that I'm lazy to canon review... so yeah)
cast strength: ■ □ □ □ □ (Atsuro's shown that as much as he loves his friends, he's used to friendships drifting apart after time and circumstances. It makes it pretty easy for him to stand on his own and make new friends, but he needs to have a Naoya figure in his life for him to look up to, and if I want him to develop such that he overcomes his confidence issues, Atsuro needs an MC Atsuro-route figure to help him out there. Maybe Souji? fft)
plotting capabilities: ■ □ □ □ □ (IDK, generic nice guy, so I don't really plot with him. But at the same time, I've also been lazy to plot with him)
likelihood of drop: ■ □ □ □ □ (It's nice having a genuinely nice guy in my line-up for once, but I have to admit I'm far more lazy in getting activity with him than I am with my other two. If I ever get too swamped in stuff that I have to drop one, Atsuro will probably be the one to go. That said, it's unlikely I'll drop him soon.

character: Toto Sakigami (16) [to_kill_a]
series: Deadman Wonderland, theskytides AU
muse strength: ■ ■ ■ □ □ (The primary reason it's not higher is because canon's still ongoing, and we don't know Toto's reasons for doing anything at this point. We know he's involved in stuff and he's obviously doing stuff but what we have no idea. And it makes me a little more wary and cautious than I would otherwise)
cast strength: ■ □ □ □ □ (Toto's pretty independent, so he stands fairly well on his own once you break the attachments he'd formed in canon so he can form new, similar attachments. It sounds a little self-evident and applicable to anyone, but for Toto, I feel it's something you have to do if you're in an AU world with no castmates. Toto plays fairly well with anyone)
plotting capabilities: ■ ■ □ □ □ (When he's a little more established, anyway. He similar to Joshua in that he's a bit of a troll sometimes, albeit a creepy one, and seems to actively stir up trouble in canon. Except in canon, we don't know WHY yet, so I'm a bit loath to stir up anything major yet. However, there's someone he wants to shank, but I keep forgetting to talk to someone about that)
likelihood of drop: ■ □ □ □ □ (Not at this point. It's a bit difficult tagging things, since I've essentially cut him off from half the interaction he could get by tagging logs exclusively with him (since I feel he wouldn't use journals at all, despite the potential for information). But I don't think I'll be getting rid of him soon)

[Dropped/Unused]

character: Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu (15) [fallingjunkyard]
series: The World Ends With You, pokeology_rp AU
muse strength: ■ ■ ■ ■ □ (This Joshua's pretty similar to TST!Joshua in that he's not tied down to a particular place and is less mature and more bratty. And while he's got the unattached to humanity thing that all my Joshuas have, his Shibuya is a little different; it's his Pokémon. The biggest reason my ability to play this Joshua is not as strong as TST!Joshua is that while Joshua has an interest in people, he doesn't have much interest in helping them, due to being young, bratty and having his Shibuya being Pokémon that are excellent at pranking. That small difference makes it difficult for me to grasp this Joshua's world view)
cast strength: ■ □ □ □ □ (Again, he doesn't need any of his castmates, except for some kind of Mr H. figure to keep him in line. However, this Joshua is probably the least attached to his Mr H. of my Joshuas, due to his mobility around the land at a young age and his attachment to his Pokémon. He's far less likely to listen to or consult with Mr H. as well)
plotting capabilities: ■ □ □ □ □ (feels kind of like genaric pranking kind of stuff, since this Joshua's a lot more immature and not as good at trolling than his older counterparts)
likelihood of drop: ■ ■ ■ ■ □ (There isn't all that much I want to do with this Joshua, actually. I guess it's because he's got this kind of... static feeling to him. He already has his Shibuya, and he doesn't have any of that internal conflict he has between his love for people and his hate for people's tendency towards ignorance (in his opinion) that makes the other Joshuas have. This Joshua sees humanity's problems and just shrugs and moves on, because he only really cares about his Pokémon. So yeah, this Joshua is really static, which makes him kiiinda boring to play)

character: Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu (15, ~21?) [fallingjunkyard]
series: The World Ends With You
muse strength: ■ ■ ■ ■ □ (I'm pretty comfortable with canon!Joshua ! But I'm not sure how to deal with the problem of him being away from Shibuya in most canon RPs. See, he could be pretty chill with the idea of being in another world and just kick back and relax until Mr H. comes and bails him out. Or something. He just knows that he'll return home, and isn't one to stop enjoying the world around him. No, it starts becoming an issue when he's been in the RP for about a month a more, and having Joshua really determined to get home because he's got Shibuya's underworld to run starts becoming in direct conflict with what I, the player want, which is to have him NOT get home. And at that point, I'm not sure what to do with Joshua)
cast strength: ■ ■ □ □ □ (same deal as before, Joshua can pretty much function well without his castmates, but he does have some attachment to his little Players and Conductor in addition to Mr H.)
plotting capabilities: ■ ■ ■ □ □ (Assuming some part of his godly powers are kept, plenty of potential. But as always, I'm a lazy bum)
likelihood of drop: ■ ■ ■ □ □ (if I could be bothered keeping up with a canon game, Joshua would be (mostly) pretty easy to play. But again, after a month or so, Joshua would be in DETERMINED TO GET HOME mode, and he won't give up. The thing is, if the current TST plot is anything to go by, I don't think I could stand playing Joshua's DETERMINED side for long. It's a problem of getting locked in staticity. While Joshua outwardly might not seem to be behaving much different, most of his actions are going to be fuelled by determination to get out. It's static. Compare to TST, where his reasons for doing things change a lot, due to both plot and his freedom)

[sry, no image for you]

character: Akihiko Sanada (18) [puuuuunch] (note: journal no longer belongs to me)
series: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, theskytides AU
muse strength: □ □ □ □ □ (Ah well, to be honest, I didn't really have Akihiko's muse to begin with. I picked him up because I thought I could pick up his muse along the way, like I had done with Joshua and Shiki and Bidoof and Ika-chan. Buuut it turned out I couldn't, and that, ultimately, was the reason for my drop; it shouldn't have taken hours to write a simple journal post that even after I posted, didn't feel like Akihiko)
cast strength: ■ ■ ■ □ □ (Akihiko could easily build a SEES-like relationship with his crew over time, but the biggest difference between the crew and SEES would be that the crew's goals don't coincide with SEES' and thus, his own. Akihiko wanted to get stronger, and Shadows provided a good way to do so, but while that might've been his reason for joining SEES in the beginning, Mitsuru's mission also became his. At the very least, he would need communication with the rest of SEES. And then there's Shinji)
plotting capabilities: ■ □ □ □ □ (IDK. Aside from punching people in the face?)
likelihood of drop: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ (The low muse strength is pretty much the reason for the high probability of dropping if I reapped him)

character: Bidoof Bidoofson (14) [derpenter]
series: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky, theskytides AU
muse strength: ■ ■ □ □ □ (I used to think it was pretty strong, but then I actually played the rest of the game, most notably his special episode, and realised that while the voice is right, the underlying motive and personality was wrong. Now, it's probably not as strong, especially since Bidoof's backstory touches on similar feelings as I have. Technically it shouldn't affect my playing, in fact enhancing it since I'm so familiar with that kind of failure feeling and Bidoof's main adorableness comes from him moving PAST that, but it does affect me; I don't want to revisit those depressing feelings before Bidoof gets his character development, but after his character development, Bidoof feels very static to play)
cast strength: ■ ■ □ □ □ (While it was fun to derp his way through the Vic II, Bidoof really needs to have friends who accept him for all his failure. They don't need to be other Pokémon neccesarily, but he definitely needs that kind of love and friendship from a GROUP of people, not just one)
plotting capabilities: ■ □ □ □ □ (lol aside from accidentally messing peoples' things up, not really)
likelihood of drop: ■ ■ ■ ■ □ (If I apped him again, I forsee him being fun for a month or two, but not much longer. Partially because I apped him post character development (pre-character development canon wasn't available at the time) and he feels like a really static character after that)

character: Ika-chan (8) [ika_kid]
series: Ika-chan, theskytides AU
muse strength: ■ ■ □ □ □ (l-lol well her canon isn't exactly your usual RP material. It's sort of like RPing from old SHMUPs in that story is very minimal and you concentrate on gameplay. So yeah, a lot of her characterisation is creative and logical bullcrap, really)
cast strength: □ □ □ □ □ (Pretty much every other character in Ika-chan is unappable, and she's just... a squid who swims around and helps randoms. She barely remembers anyone after she's done helping them)
plotting capabilities: □ □ □ □ □ (Lol baby squid)
likelihood of drop: ■ ■ ■ ■ □ (Well, for one I'd feel kind of bad RPing a character who really doesn't have much to go on for characterisation, and it was mostly done for the novelty of having a baby flying tentacle monster on my cast-list. Aaand there's the fact that Ika-chan is a very passive character, which basically forces the other mun to take the reins of all her logs. I tend to prefer characters who can actively carry a conversation, which she can't)

character: Shiki Misaki (15) [not_mr_azurill]
series: The World Ends With You
muse strength: ■ ■ □ □ □ (I sort of know how Shiki thinks and stuff, but I have a tendency to make her smarter than she really is. Plus, I have difficulty when it comes to getting into her girly girl side so!)
cast strength: □ □ □ □ □ (Pre-canon at least (where I took her from), Shiki doesn't know any of the cast except Eri, who she wouldn't want around while she makes a new start)
plotting capabilities: ■ □ □ □ □ (She's a pretty nice girl, with the occasional need to depants boys)
likelihood of drop: ■ ■ ■ ■ □ (Shiki's a character I could write an essay about actually. Especially regarding her relationship with Eri, and while she said she was acting like Eri during the week with Neku, she didn't really change her mannerisms and bubbly personality after her character development. I could write a lot about how a lot of Shiki's 'acting' wasn't really acting and blah blah blah but I don't feel comfortable RPing her. I guess it's because I tend to use her as a foil to Joshua in fic, so I tend to see her from Joshua's point of view, or in terms of Joshua, rather than in terms of Shiki)

character: Guy Cecil (YOU KNOW WHAT? I DON'T EVEN KNOW) [entertheguy]
series: Tales of the Abyss
muse strength: □ □ □ □ □ (I love Guy. I can list off a bunch of his traits, like how he's a nice guy and charismatic, which reels in the ladies, unfortunately for his gynophobia. He's a fontech nerd, and a bit touchy about it when the other party members makes fun of him. But the problem is, I cannot for the life of me link his traits to each other and fill in the gaps in order to form his personality, which is what I do when I RP. In other words, I can list off traits, but not describe his personality. And then there's the fact I don't have his voice at all)
cast strength: ■ ■ ■ ■ □ (Primarily Luke and Van, but at this point in time, he also needs to serve. Even if he is/was a noble before, Guy ultimately ends up as the servant and he doesn't mind)
plotting capabilities: ■ □ □ □ □ (He's a nice guy who's a charmer for the laydees. It promises to be hilarious funtimes, at least)
likelihood of drop: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ (YEAHHH muse strength)

Code for people if they want to do the meme. Use it for each muse you have.

--

I dunno if whether it's a pattern with my characters RE: Cast strength and just me picking characters who stand well (mostly) on their own without castmates, or just me being able to figure out a way for them to stand on their own. It could also be because all the characters that I didn't drop within a month (i.e. all the characters I have now + Bidoof) were the first character from the fandom in the game, meaning I had to make them work on their own.

I guess I'm touching a little on the whole, castmates vs no castmates thing (as well as castmates vs non-castmates filling in the role castmates provide). In general, I tend to view characters as not needing castmates, and I guess this is primarily because I'm usually apping for theskytides, where... unless you discuss with other people in the game for backstories, upon entering the game, you're essentially starting your character from a mostly blank slate and filling it in as you RP (sometimes retroactively). And I guess that makes it really easy for new characters to find other characters in the game to fill the roles canonmates normally would, because the way I see it, most characters in canon games (especially since they're being yanked from their world somehow, where conflicts etc. are often still going) are still attached to the people they know. There's often no preparation, no nothing to prepare characters for being yanked from who they know, and you get that kind of longing for the people they're familiar with. BASICALLY the canon roles have already been filled by... canonmates, which makes it hard to fill them with non-canonmates unless you either dump them or squeeze people in. Of course, this is a generalisation, and not all characters will be this way. I guess it kind of explains why I find AUs easier to get into over canon; you don't have nearly as much castmate baggage.

Aaand I guess it's also because in TST I'm safe from the TWEWY fandom shippers lulz :|

It's not to say castmates aren't cool, but these days I just treat them in the same manner as non-castmates, because that's often who they are in an AU game. At least for my characters. Most people are strangers... so they're treated as such.

A pretty good summary of how I've been spending the holidays

2009-12-07T15:41:53Z

Anyone here played Ikaruga? It looks and sounds utterly fascinating (based on screenshots and art, because lol internet + Youtube) and seems more my thing than Touhou (I love me sum fighterplanes).

--

I know I've been talking about games a lot so I'll summarise my current feelings on the games I'm playing with a haiku and some tld;r:

1) The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
Very pretty art,
Puzzles!! And Valoo is boss,
BUT SO MUCH SAILING.

The sailing was really interesting and fun to look at, actually... for the first 30 minutes. Compare my negative reaction to WW's lengthy sailing travel times to my positive reaction to Shadow of the Colossus' lengthy horseback travel times :| Also, the King of Hyrule is a jerk.

2) Metroid Prime
I love space jump, but
I keep missing the save points,
Space Pirates scare me.

Yeah the Space Pirates are kind of freakish when they suddenly SCREECH and start shooting you. Or suddenly DROP DOWN FROM THE CEILING ASDF;LKJ. I keep on getting cornered by the ones who get into melee, and unless I go all MORPH BALL, I can't do jack shit against them for some reason. I love the morph ball ♥ It feels really strange to be platforming so much in a FPS, especially when YOU CAN'T SEE YOUR FEET, but for some reason I'm... better at it in Metroid Prime than I am in actual games of the platform genre? It works surprisingly well, although I always have this little ball of fear at the bottom or my stomach whenever I have to jump over deadly lava or something; the sound of Samus' suit getting damaged is really freakish. Like claws scraping on a metal board.

Also, GODDAMNED SECURITY CAMERAS. Also, GODDAMNED BATS. Tallon IV and its numerous exploding wildlife makes me wonder how those animals survived evolution.

3) PMD2: Explorers of Sky
Darkrai really sucks,
AI is still terrible,
Darkrai REALLY sucks.

Still haven't been able to beat him. A combination of terrible type matchups, terrible luck with enemy status effects and Cresselia having really stupid AI that I can't modify to make her less stupid makes the fight against Darkrai close to unwinnable. And that's even if I get through the latter half of his dungeon without losing my Reviver seeds to 1HKOs. Yeah, being a grass pokémon in a primarily fire pokémon dungeon sucks.

4) Pikmin 2
Improved gameplay, but
if many die in a Hole,
Again, I reset.

As much as I love Pikmin 2's improvements over the original, the fact I'm limited to the number of Pikmin I bring with me into holes and the fact the game saves every floor makes me be extremely conservative with my Pikmin. And while that results in Pikmin lives being saved, it also means I reset the game whenever I lose more than 2 Pikmin on a floor. Which results in me progressing through Pikmin 2 a lot more slowly than in Pikmin.

5) Tales of the Abyss
Towards the endgame,
the game became fetch quest-like,
SO ANNOYING, CRAI.

As much as I love the characters and the general aesthetic in TotA, I have so many gameplay beefs with it it's not funny (and as I've said a long time ago, gameplay has a high weighting when I figure out whether I like a game or not). I was playing, what, 4.5 hours of TotA with a friend, starting from just before Ion reads the Planet Score, only the last 30 minutes of playing was really interesting. The last 30 minutes being LOL LUKE AND ASCH ARE BEING STUPID. And Guy punched Luke in the face. Yeah that was good, too. It's a shame that apparently lots of interesting stuff happens in the GUIDEDANGIT side-quests, which we missed because we're not playing with a guide :| I don't think I'll replay it ):

6) Tales of Vesperia
Dying from laughter,
Love all chars, but Raven best,
Improved gameplay, yes \o/ !

I can't really talk about how much I love the characters without being incoherent, because I can't point at anything specific about what makes me like them so much. But I do love them, MMMMMM Whitehorse. And I could probably go on forever about the gameplay improvements from Abyss. Except after playing Abyss, DamnYouMuscleMemory.

7) Super Smash Bros. Brawl
I still suck a lot,
But I can short-hop, wavebounce,
and zap jump! (sometimes)

I'm aware those alone don't make a good Lucas player (and man I still have a long way to go), but they're useful tools to know and be able to do. I'm still primarily working on my movement around the stage, especially with short-hopped PK Fires, because I have a tendency to do full-hopped ones by accident and... just have the fire go over people's heads ): I've been tackling Boss Battles on Intense difficulty. I've sort of been able to get up to the 7th boss semi-consistently (the furthest I've gotten was the 8th boss), but some bosses can still kill me even when I start at 0% (Porky). For some reason, I'm having issues with Crazy and Master hand, when they previously used to be my easiest. Surprisingly, Duon is really easy now !

8) Ico
Cryyy Shadows respawn,
Keep running, but where to go?
Yorda's nicked, I die.

Sob I got past the early stages of Ico because I would beat up the Shadows until they stop respawning, but where I'm stuck there's way too many of them, and they respawn indefinitely (as far as I can tell anyway; I die before then). Cute game though and gives me serious Double Arts pings. I keep thinking that if Ico lets go of Yorda's hand, she's gonna fade away; she's such a waif ;; I can't really find anything I could consider wrong with the game.

--

Man, it's kind of... satisfying? to be content with RPing. I used to think that I, as an RPer, had to be constantly striving for improvement (although this wasn't something I applied to other RPers). I still think that, to some extent, because striving to represent the character in such a way that other people feel like they're viewing canon when I'm playing out situations far removed from canon is part of what makes RPing fandom fun for me. But there came a point where this mindset was getting in the way of my enjoyment of playing.

I mean, there's still plenty of ways I can improve with all my characters, but this is where I sort of apply my effort-enjoyment principle. Which is basically, if the effort required > the enjoyment gained, it won't be done. It's like, I have a long shopping list of things I can improve, but the time and energy and worry and stress I'll expend/generate trying to improve (some of) those makes the RPing unfun ! It sounds a little like I'm content in wallowing in mediocrity, but there's a difference between striving for improvement and forcing myself to improve when there's something in my head that says NO I DON'T WANT TO.

That said, let's have a Toto related braindump with how I feel about playing him oh gods.

I've talked somewhat extensively about how difficult Toto would be to play since I'd have to remove him from the DMW scene and thus his base of comfort/knowledge/power etc. I was totes on the mark about that, but I suspect things will get easier once he gets more established with characters.

The other problem I'm having is how easy it is to regurgitate what canon's already given us, even when it's not entirely appropriate to do so. I've noticed when I'm not fully settled into a character, when responding to tags, I tend to mentally replay similar situations that happened in canon and respond in a similar manner to canon. I don't just do this with Toto; I do this with Atsuro sometimes as well, and used to do it with Joshua. I just think I do it more with Toto because he's from an ongoing canon, and I've never RPed from something like that before! I guess it's something like an unconscious fear that something similar to the new situation Toto's being put into in the RP will crop up in canon, and then Toto will react in a totally different way to how I did it and then I'll cry bitch tears over how OOC I was.

The aforementioned ease of regurgitation is really noticeable when I play Toto (at least, I feel it's noticeable) because of his few, short appearances in canon. And it's these short appearances that make certain catchphrases or blah blah blahs really easy to remember and spout whenever he talks ICly. It's really easy to throw around words like 'love' and phrases like "I'm weak now" or "I don't feel like it~" (like, Toto has a fair number of 'catchphrases', if that makes sense? A lot of what he says is short and easily regurgitatable) but am I using them at an appropriate time? Right now, Toto's speech when I play him is a little jarring, like a mismatched cut and paste job, especially when I compare it to how I play Joshua.

Basically, I need to get used to Toto more so I can actually get him to say (more) things outside the scope of canon and have it feel right while not feeling chained to what he's said in canon so far. And to do that, I need to stop thinking like 'what did he do in canon that I could use in response to this' and more like 'what would Toto do in response to this'.

Oh, and stop initially phrasing things the way Joshua would phrase them. That would help, too.

THAT SAID, it's fun playing the little creeper, and I am so glad I ganked to_kill_a before someone else did, though. I'm actually kinda? surprised there's a fair number of Toto journals floating around, though as far as I know, no one else in games. I CAN TOTALLY UNDERSTAND WHY THOUGH SOB SELF WHY. HHH the only reason I haven't redone all of Toto's icons right now is because I don't want to redo them all when he gets colours he'd better get colours ;;

Ten's thoughts on playing Metroid Prime for the first time.

2009-12-03T10:53:41Z

DISCLAIMER I haven't gotten very far at all (read: Ten is still in Tallon IV). Some of you may know that I haven't played an FPS before, which is exactly what Metroid Prime is. This clearly means hilarity ensues, right?

RIGHT.

The Wii controls were really easy to get the hang of, thankfully ! There's a couple of problems (due to me sucking), such as going MORPH BALL instead of jumping (THANKS A LOT, BRAWL) and me waving the Wiimote too much, so I end up looking at the ceiling haha. Also, because I haven't actually played any Wii games where I have to hold the Wiimote steady for extended periods of time, my right wrist hurts a lot now get out of the gutter. Graphics wise, the HUDs and various other floating hologramy stuff hits my design pings, and I like being able to scan the wildlife. Although, sometimes I can't tell the difference between rocky ground and ACID.

Aside from all that, my reaction to this game has been, in order:
1) OH GOD WHY AM I BEING SHOT AT OMG DIE DIE DIE AHHHH
2) OH GOD WHY WON'T THE SPACE PIRATES DIE THEY'RE ALREADY ALMOST DEAD WHYYY
3) ASDF;KLJ SECURITY CAMERAS SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO SHOOT YOU
4) GODDAMMIT SAMUS WHY DOES EVERY PLACE YOU GO TO HAVE TO EXPLODE??
5) Game Over. > Would you like to reload your game?
6) Oooh wildlife!
7) I'M COVERED IN ~~BEES~~ WASPS

Edit: AUUUUGHHHHH 1.5 hours worth of battling, powerup getting and more importantly, NOT DYING down the drain because of sudden LOL ACID WITH NO WAY OUT OF IT.

Tales of fail, from down under

2009-11-27T14:28:37Z

Okay so. Near my place, there's a shopping centre thing that's under renovation for more shops. For quite some time now, there've been signs up that there'll be an EB Games opening there! Well, today, I found out that they've just opened, so, naturally, I went down there to check it out. I was poking around the Wii and DS games sections, since my brother said to buy something I liked and send him the bill for my birthday, and spotted the collector's edition of the Metroid Prime Trilogy in it's extremely shiny glory.

It was $99.95.

I have never played a Metroid game for longer than 10 minutes.

... I bought it anyway.

I'm hoping it's well worth the cash, because I only had $5 left in my wallet. Afterwards, I went to the petrol station to refuel my car. I only wanted to fill up $20 worth, since I won't be driving around all that much these holidays. I get $50 from mum for the fuel since I'm so broke right now, so after I pay for the fuel, I put the change in my wallet, and when I get back in the car, I give her the money in my wallet. She checks the cash and says, "The guy gave us $5 extra change."

I look over, and sure enough, there's $35 change instead of the expected $30. So I go back to the guy at the cash register and hand him back the extra $5. The guy's (probably) manager gives me an appreciative look and a "Thanks for that!" and I cheerfully walk out and get back in my car.

I don't realise the mistake until I get home. The "extra" $5 was really the $5 I had left in my wallet after buying Metroid, and I'd given mum all the money in my wallet instead of just the change.

|||OTL foreverrr

Not!summary of Ten's 4 days away from the internet

2009-11-25T14:41:07Z

- I was offered to be taken out to a casino, since I've been old enough to go to one for some time now. However, I flatly refused. I didn't really think about it too much at the time, but in hindsight, even though I tend to try things out at least once, it was a very good thing I didn't. My experience from 'gambling' in video games is that I don't have enough self-control to stop. The one time I did play cards for money was a clear demonstration that I won't stop unless someone else stops me, even if I don't have the cash. It's like... my mindset is such that I think I'm going to win the next one and I'll cover my losses, which is exactly what I do in video games. But, in video games, gambling and winning is significantly easier for very good reason. So yeah, casinos and I would be a very bad mix.

- I can't help but feel (at times) that I'm a bit of a disappointment because I don't act like a preconceived notion of what a girl should be like. I can't help but forgive, though, despite my dislike of feeling pressured into feeling like I should be this preconceived idea of a girl; there was a time that I was that girl, but if you timeskip to who I am now, associating my current self to my past self would be very difficult. And that's sort of what happened. It's like I'm being thought of as being on the girly girl train tracks, when in reality, I changed tracks long ago. Sadly, it's hard to make that forgiveness apparent; I tend to get irritated when I feel pressured, but at least I'm not as snappish as I used to be.

- The idea that you need to be 'doing something' (such as shopping or watching a movie) to enjoy a day out in some place you're unfamiliar with is really bizarre to me. For my birthday, I was down (or is it up? I forget) at Mandurah, where there isn't all that much to do except fish (we didn't bring any fishing gear), walk by the river, sit in the shade and watch other people walk by the river, watch the birds, or eat good (sea)food. I thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent there since I absolutely love watching animals and people, and there were plenty of both there. But not everyone agrees with me; there was 'nothing good' in Mandurah except for the food, and we could've spent that time shopping instead. Personally, I tend to dislike shopping unless it's 1) for games, 2) for books, or 3) hanging out with friends, which is less about the shopping and more about the company. And even then, for 3), there needs to be someone who isn't wishy-washy like I am, or else it turns into a very frustrating day.

- The concept of refusing gifts out of 'politeness' can get very frustrating for me. When someone takes you out for lunch, you don't try to pay the bill for them ! If they're taking you out and are offering to pay the bill, trying to pay for them is throwing their hospitality in their face! Related, refusing every. single. gift given isn't being polite; it's being extremely frustrating for the giver, even more so if they've specially gone out to buy/make the gift. I don't mind if it's just one refusal before being accepted (because idk it seems to be a Chinese culture thing) but any more than that sometimes makes me want to scream "JUST TAKE IT, GODDAMMIT!"

- Never be the driver if no one in the car knows exactly how to get to a place.

- Finished Pikmin for the first time and got the best ending. Difficult last boss was difficult, though. I feel completely horrible for losing so many Pikmin. Nearly half my total population.

- Finished Metroid Pinball (by finished, I mean unlocked everything, since you can't really 'finish' a pinball game. Though, you can finish the storyline, which is what I did when I unlocked everything).

- Getting worse at Brawl. I'm not sure what this really means. Still can't beat the boss rush on intense. Discovered I can only connect to Wi-Fi at home if I fork out 180 bucks. Not happening.

- WiiSports is... well, I would've preferred to have WiiPlay or Raving Rabbids or something. Still, watching parents play it is kind of amusing. Baseball in particular is hilari-bad. Even more so when my teammates are Miis of my OCs/RP characters/game characters. I haven't been able to make a single home run on it, though. Not even with Ness. Claus seems to take great joy in catching people out, and surprisingly, Trian is a very good shortstop. Maybe because he doesn't have floorhair as a Mii?

- Up to the Darkrai chapter of PMD2: Explorers of Sky. Haven't actually gotten up to fighting Darkrai because... let me just say. There are lots of fire Pokémon in Darkrai's dungeon. My MC? Is a grass Pokémon. Damn those 1 hit KOs.

- The broken TV is pretty much completely broken now. It's wigging out pretty much all the time.

- According to two of my lecturers, I did well in my related exams ! I guess that's pretty good news, since I'm not sure whether students will be getting their results or not because of union action :|a

- An artist can be incredibly pleased with a piece of art they did, but then often the artist will move on to their next piece of art, even if the viewers do not.

- The less than a week or so away from the internet felt really good. Now that I'm back, I'm sort of flailing and trying to catch up to everything. It also feels pretty good to be back, though the things I owe/need to do because of my sudden yanking away from the nets feels like a mountain I need to slay.

tenshinoakuma @ 2009-11-20T23:17:00

2009-11-20T15:17:56Z

Crap, unexpectedly have to entertain family (with Brawl?? This is actually more frustrating than it sounds). It also involves a lot of driving (WHY FREMANTLE, FAMILY??). Will be away from internet until Thursday-ish. Probably. /floats away

tenshinoakuma @ 2009-11-19T21:33:00

2009-11-19T13:33:34Z

I'M FREE. FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. I'LL NEVER HAVE TO DO RE 252 AGAIN ! \o/

Additionally, the Brawlening after exams was awesome fun \o/ It included gay moments that critical failed to take photos of. Brawl's awesomeness levels just shoots up like. 100x when you're camping someone's house to play. SMASH BALL SMASH BALL OMG MINE MINE MIIINE YES PEE KAYYY STARSTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORM ♥ Of course, about half the times I died was because I fucked my recovery omg QQ. I NEED TO. LIKE. BLOCK MORE AND ROLL/DODGE LESS HHHH. Also, lol boss battles intense mode :| We got up to... 5 defeated, co-op Toon Link and Lucas /o\

I. SHOULD BE BACK IN RPING IN A MOMENT JUST AHHH HAVE TO SPEND TIME WITH DAD BEFORE HE LEAVES SO AHHH /flails forever oh god

Besides, bugs live in the gutter's contents

2009-11-17T23:16:18Z

Rule 1 of moving silently on creaky floorboards: walk where the nails are.

--

In theory, this is what exists (and by interested in sex, I mean interested in sex for the sex):

Hey, it looks like Japan!

However, I'm coming across more and more people whose attitudes point towards this:

Just to make it explicit (because wiki's images of Venn diagrams don't have the universal set, and I've found more things than expected are different in Australia so it's best not to assume), you'd think that because people who're interested in sex exist, people who aren't interested in sex also exist. But for some people, apparently people who aren't interested in sex don't exist.

This really bugs me, because for other minority groups, there's usually at least some kind of acknowledgement of their existence from the other groups. For the most part, the different groups generally don't push their values onto the minority groups and don't constantly pressure them into joining the larger ones. This is my experience, anyway. It may be different elsewhere.

Why is the concept that someone isn't interested in sex so difficult for some people to grasp? Asexuality may not be treated in quite the same discriminatory way as being gay or lesbian was in the past (and I understand there're still mountains they have to conquer), but it's the same idea that asexuality isn't normal and that there's something inherently wrong about being asexual. There's a general assumption that everyone is interested in sex when that simply isn't true. People tend to assume you're part of the majority group, and I'm fine with that, because that happens, and can be easily corrected with a word or two. Maybe it doesn't help the assumption, since I don't mind dirty jokes and often join in on them, but I'm not going to be one of those people who insists everyone else kill off their sex drive and be like me. It's possible to live in the gutter but not be attracted to the gutter's contents !

What bugs me is how I 'must' be interested in porn, or 'of course' I'm interested in sex. It bugs me that apparently most people cannot comprehend the difference between finding someone attractive and being attracted to someone. It bugs me that some people in real life, upon hearing that I'd prefer gaming over sex because gaming is more interesting, instantly give me that look that you reserve for people who can't tell the difference between a game and real life and hole themselves up in their room, gaming non-stop until they die from urea poisoning or something. It's a look of extreme revulsion and intense disgust. But really, what bothers me most is just some people's blatant refusal to admit that maybe, just maybe, there are people who exist who don't have a sex drive and have no wish to get one. They'll come up with all sorts of reasons why someone may be 'asexual', some more bullshit than others. Missing hormones is an example of a very valid reason, but more often than not, it's accompanied by pressure to take the hormone treatment and incredulous looks when said treatment is politely refused. In the end, their arguments tend to boil down to either 'you're not really asexual, you just need to be fixed' or 'you're secretly a sex fiend; you're just lying to make yourself look good' because lust is a sin and chastity is a virtue, right?

Or maybe I'm just missing something?

PMD2: Explorers of the Sky, complete!

2009-11-15T10:36:17Z

Finished the main game of PMD2. I'll write a more detailed thought thing when I finish post game stuff

PMD2: Explorers of the Sky final stats
Episode Bidoof and Episode Igglybuff complete, but Episode Sunflora and Episode Team Charm I didn't finish because I wanted to get the main game done. So no items from those two episodes.
No extra days to do guild jobs done, no taking side paths for levelling, no grinding. So basically, if there was a plot mission to be done, that was done immediately. Which amounts to about 4-6 days to actually take guild jobs. Yeah.

Guild Rank: Gold [1390 to next rank]
Play Time: 27:06:46 [includes time I put down the game and wandered off while it was left running]
Adventures: 37

Joshua [Bulbasaur]
Level: 37
HP: 120
Atk: 90
Def: 69
S.Atk: 74
S.Def: 64
Item: Power Band

Ness [Riolu]
Level: 37
HP 121
Atk: 77
Def: 66
S.Atk: 68
S.Def: 72
Item: Power Band

Also known as Ten's adventures with PK Thunder

2009-11-07T16:10:17Z

In between study for exams, I have been playing Brawl. Today I just spent a good hour or so playing around with PK Thunder.

And I have to say:

HOLY CRAP the distance you can get on that thing is insane. HHHHHH you can reach the ledge of Final Destination from off-screen both horizontally and vertically. Also, from the very bottom corner of the Battlefield map to the ledge. And I found out that if you angle it right, you can rocket up the (under)side of Final Destination as well FFFFFF. oh man it looks so pretty when you do that, especially since you're pretty much going UPSIDE DOWN to get to the edge eee. NEEDLESS TO SAY I have vastly improved from when I started playing Brawl, where I couldn't. even get their electricised sperm to hit Lucas/Ness in the ass, let alone make them go in the direction I want.

You'd also be amazed at how much a broken TV helps with timing PK Thunder when you can't see the bottom half of the screen half the time.

THINGS TO DO DURING STUDY BREAK

2009-11-04T02:12:11Z

- stop playing Brawl

RE
lol history :|
1) Software Process
2) Requirements Determination
3) Fundamentals of Visual Modelling
~~4) Requirement Specification~~
5) Moving from Analysis to Design
6) System Architectural and Program Design
7) GUI Design
8) Persistence and Database Design
9) Quality and Change Management
CHAPTER 10 IS REVISION. MAYBE I SHOULD ACTUALLY DO THIS.

- STOP PLAYING BRAWL

IPE
Syntax errors
pointers <- THIS THIS THIS HHHH
logic errors
memory diagram
MAKE FILES OMG
I/O
LINKED LISTS/ADTs <- linked to pointers lol :|
recursion and stuff

- STOP PLAYING BRAWL

You know, I was all prepared to do a really long essay/gush about how awesome Shadow of the Colossus is and how incredibly immersive the game is and BAWWW the ending, but I am now tired and going to try to stop gaming and start studying :|

Quickish update

2009-11-01T14:59:14Z

~~I am working on the tricks I owe people ! Turns out mediocre badfic is more difficult than flat-out badfic.~~

Tricks go here. NSFW, though one should be Not Safe For Brain
From levikitty: Joshuaa atteempts to wriite goodpoorn. Aand faails. Puut iit oon yoour jouurnal or tiits.

"The sweat that came from the heat between their bodies only drove them to press against each other harder, in a more needy want for each other. Pressing him up against the wall, mouth on neck, he could feel his body arch under him, and he started undoing his pants. But before he could finish, he felt hands slide past the waistband of his underwear and let a gasp slip past at the touch. Arching as he was stroked, he could feel the blood rushing to his loins. In the heat of the moment, he gripped his partner and dragged him to the bed.

"It wasn't long before they were completely naked on the bed, him pinning his partner down and grinding his hips against his. Leaning down, he whispered in a voice that was low in the best way possible, "You and me, baby. We ain't nothing but mammals," and his teeth nipped at the skin of his neck."

It was like watching an airship on its way to crashing into a cliff; he couldn't stop reading, even though he had no idea what was going on anymore.

"They rolled around the bed, swapping positions, from pinning to being pinned to pinning again, fingernails digging into skin and panting when their mouths weren't biting or sucking necks, collarbones, nipples. He bit down hard on his partner's shoulder to stifle the loud moan when he felt fingers between his legs. Ohhh he was ready. Roughly pulling his partner's leg's over his body, he pressed down onto his body and pushed himself in, thru-

Ness abruptly stopped reading. "You're not putting this on the Network."

"Why not?"

The look on Joshua's face made him wonder if this was supposed to be a genuine attempt. Ness could say something about how confusing it was when the characters weren't referred to by name, was there even enough room on a bed to roll around like that and wouldn't that be painful without any lu- Wait, why was he even considering giving Joshua constructive criticism on this?! No, "Just, no."

--

For fushimiru: I saw this costume while Halloween shopping today that totally reminded me of Joshua! So I want you to draw him in it, then post it on your journal AND Tits!

--

For critical: do something with your OCs i haven't seen them in foreverrrrr

Drawing while lying down is hard :< Also, I had Brawl on the brain.

--

For fae_of_the_rose: You must write Josh/Ness. And post it in Tits.

The ring Joshua had given Ness one Lunasa was supposed to be a proposal, and he'd spent a good portion of a year wondering if Ness just couldn't decide, or if Ness meant to reject him, but couldn't figure out a way to do so without hurting his feelings.

Joshua should've known his proposal had simply gone over Ness' head.

So he proposed (again). Properly this time, bent on one knee in front of Ness, with the proffered ring in a velvet box. He grinned a little at the look of surprise on Ness' face, heart leaping in joy when Ness took the ring. But Joshua's feeling of great happiness ebbed when Ness opted to hold the ring up to his eye and examine it carefully instead of giving him a reply. An agonising minute later, and Ness' response? "Isn't this the ring you gave me two Lunasas ago?"

--

One wedding later, and Joshua couldn't help but feel a little... disappointed? They were seated beside each other holding hands, leaning against each other in that comfortable way they'd perfected in all the time they'd known each other. Sighing a little, he leant more heavily against Ness. "This doesn't feel any different from how things were before. What do we do now?"

Ness just smiled and leaned over, arms going around Joshua's neck. "I guess we'll just keep on doing what we've always been doing," he said, giving Joshua a kiss.

Joshua couldn't find any reason to argue with that.

--------

Admittedly half the reason they weren't done yet is because I spent about 8 hours almost non stop playing Brawl. I think it was time well spent, but my eyeballs disagree with me. I am still hilari-bad at Brawl (the stupidest ways I have died, there are so many), but I'm definitely better at Brawl than I am at SSB. The characters I feel most comfortable playing at the moment are Peach, Pikachu, Bowser(!!), Lucas and Ness (but only in my ground game for the last two. I haven't got the timing for PK Thunder down yet, so I keep on shooting AWAY from the edge /facepalm).

I'm powering my way through Shadow of the Colossus. It's kind of interesting that travel time doesn't bother me nearly as much in this game than it would in another game. Because there is a lot of travel time when you hunt for the next Colossus. I think it might be because I treat Shadow of the Colossus less like a game and more like an experience. I find myself pulling on the reins to slow Agro (Wander's very awesome horse) down to a stop in front of a tree and get off, instead of just galloping full-speed at the tree and just jumping off. Functionally, they do the same thing in game (put me in a position by the tree), but I know that sending a horse directly into a tree is a Very Bad Thing in real life, so I don't do that to Agro. Even though I could, with no repercussion in game. That's the kind of effect Shadow of the Colossus has. Things that would annoy me in any other game (like how friggin hard it is to shoot an arrow at eyeball when you're riding a horse going at full speed, which dicks around with your aim) don't annoy me here. I think the only time I felt dicked by the game was against that small Colossus that's afraid of fire. When it charges at me and I fail at dodging, it'll knock Wander to the floor. But in the (very long) time it takes for Wander to get up, it charges Wander before he can move again, and then Wander gets knocked to the floor. Rinse and repeat :|

I'm really kind of B| at my Toto samples, but at this point I'm like NOOOooo I cannot be bothered working on this app anymore. Especially since I'd been working on it off and on since frigging August but couldn't get anything solid down until now (though even that's debatable).

B[

2009-10-31T05:10:00Z

1) Create a graphic (200 x 200 max size) to represent your personal "candy". It should have your username on it, but otherwise can feature whatever you want. Make it something special since it's self-representative.

2) Make a post with the subject "trick or treat?". Put your "candy" somewhere in it, and be sure to repost these instructions.

3) Then, go around other people's LJs and reply to them with either "trick" or "treat". If you reply with "trick", they will give you an LJ dare that you have to perform before taking their candy. If you're too wimpy for that, simply say "treat" and take their candy.

4) List all your collected candies in your original "trick or treat?" post to show off your collection, being sure not to direct-link! (but I don't care if you do)

Candies ganked
lady_raynedrops
"Rickroll (or some other kind of spam/horrific thing) someone from chat in private IM, and bring back a screencap for proof!"

tasogareika
"Mmmm okay I just want to see a photo of you, because I don't know how you look like. >:"

tealantern
"You can't say a single name all day. :3 You must refer to what they are/what they do/who they play/what they smell like, but you can't call anyone by their name."

pikabot
"Until halloween is over, you must type out your Aussie accent phonetically."

levikitty [NSFW]
"Joshuaa atteempts to wriite goodpoorn. Aand faails. Puut iit oon yoour jouurnal or tiits."

fushimiru [NSFW]
"I saw this costume while Halloween shopping today that totally reminded me of Joshua! So I want you to draw him in it, then post it on your journal AND Tits!"

critical
"do something with your OCs i haven't seen them in foreverrrrr"

fae_of_the_rose
"You must write Josh/Ness. And post it in Tits."

Raincloud of thoughts

2009-10-26T10:02:18Z

It's always the things I predict and keep to myself that come true, inexplicably and inevitably. The things I predict and share are always the ones that don't. It's a shame about the former, because those are always my more cynical predictions and it's a bit jarring when I generally believe that people are wonderful.

The dreams that I know will come true always do, even after I stop believing in them. I ended up getting the new scanlated DMW chapters 4-6 months earlier than than I was expecting !

GRAHHH Star Fox Command

2009-10-24T16:03:04Z

Whose smart idea was it to make you RUB THE TOUCH SCREEN to do a barrel roll in Star Fox Command? SERIOUSLY. I keep on getting shot down by motherships because it's not working in the split second I have between then and the last beacon, and because barrel rolling requires you to rub the touchscreen, which is also your directional navigation, your ship flies everywhere while you're trying to roll. Which has the unfortunate side effect of rolling you out of the beacons to hit the mothership, which results in you getting shot down. ARGHHHHHH taking a break from RE isn't supposed to fill me with frustration !

The gameplay of the game itself isn't bad ! It just primarily suffers from the difficulty in pulling off barrel rolls (and it's not just in Star Fox that has a problem with screen rubbing controls; TWEWY suffered a similar problem with its rub pins, and some of the early-mid game breakers were rub pins). Unfortunately, unlike TWEWY, whose problem could be easily solved by swapping pins, barrel rolling is such an integral part of Star Fox Command (even more so than in Star Fox 64). Not only is it required for destroying motherships, it also deflect attacks, which in doing so, grants you precious time bonuses so you don't fall out of the air when you run out of fuel. So yeah, REALLY frustrating to have such difficulty in using a skill that's so vital to the gameplay.

Man, if there was something that mapped barrel rolling to the L button, I'd be so happy ; A;

Edit: Clearly I should read FAQs on GameFAQs first. You can do a barrel roll by drawing a (small) circle on the touchscreen. Despite the game telling you to "rub the stylus back and forth" B| SO MUCH EASIER though sometimes I draw the circle too big >:

HEY GUYS GUESS WHAT.

2009-10-22T12:11:46Z

OCTOBER 22ND IS INTERNATIONAL CAPSLOCK DAY. I FULLY EXPECT YOU PEOPLE IN A SLOW TIMEZONE TO CAPSLOCK AT ME.

Also today I saw on the side of a van:

SEME - solutions for a safer world

Uni To Do list
- IPE study (+ do the pracs, before Monday. IS THERE A MOCK TEST. if there is, do that, too)
- RE Assignment (before Tuesday for feedback, start at latest on friday night, god)
- RE text book + notes
- SE Reading (+ bully Mike)
- ST pracs (+ reading the lecture notes hnn)

IPE
Unions (lecture 5) [not that important since it's frowned upon now]
THE MAKE FILES LECTURE WTF I DON'T GET THIS AT ALL
POINTERS TO POINTERS TO POINTERS. JUST FOLLOW THE ARROWS/STARS. And don't forget the & B|
IPE TEST
- pointers and memory (parts a and b)
- file I/O, and command line arguments - design a program to do...
- implement the following ADT

Other stuff to do list (doesn't include stuff after exams are over)
- reply to L and Edgeworth
- message Sekai-mun (Jen) about potential CR
- Toto app (~~iron out the history, look over the personality and remove some crap that's not relevant, samples~~ DONE \o/)
- get up to speed on plot, primarily golden fleece stuff fasdfhgjsdl;kfj
- STOP BEING STUPID

lol DMW 25

2009-10-19T08:24:19Z

HI THIS IS A OH GOD I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON WITH TOTO IN DMW POST.

One of the biggest issues I'm having with apping Toto is that the canon isn't finished yet. There's just this annoying, niggling feeling at the back of my head that canon may fuck me over any time. Thiiis is probably why I don't app from anything other than 'completed' canons sigh. To a certain extent, I know how to deal with this in an AU game like theskytides, at least when it comes to personality; Toto's personality seems pretty clear now. But the AU history part is going to be a bit argh ! The way I'm thinking of solving it is using some laser guided amnesia to cover the (many) bits and pieces of his history that we don't know. But, I'm also going to have to forcibly remove him from the AU version of DMW, and that's likely going to have to use some laser guided amnesia too, or else he's going to want to return to DMW.

IDK, currently in canon his primary interests seem to be in Ganta and Shiro, who are in DMW. Ganta blew an opportunity to escape DMW because he wants to find the Red Man. Shiro didn't escape either because she wants to stay with Ganta. Would Toto be interested enough in Ganta and Shiro that if they left, he'd leave DMW behind? Right now there isn't much (apparent) reason for Toto's stalkings other than to observe Ganta and Shiro's movements. Why? Because they are his new toys? Because he's (currently) weak, so he's observing rather than being in the action himself? Because he wants to see the beautiful dichotomy of Ganta and Shiro and the Wretched Egg's relationship himself?

Also, as a side thought, in the light of DMW 25, holy fuck this means he killed Hibana without any blood abilities to use, if Crow Claw is the only thing he can use. I suspected this when I read DMW 24, but it's still a surprise, since before DMW 24 I thought he had more stolen abilities than just the Crow Claw.

Back to Toto's stalkings, I get the feeling it's primarily the first and the last one. But, at the same time, I believe there's still some kind of possessive attachment to the other Deadmen. So, having Ganta and Shiro break off from the other Deadmen (in the sense that they leave DMW; later chapters, Ganta splits off from the other Deadmen. Or rather, they reject him) would be something Toto DOES NOT WANT imo. His interactions with Ganta and Shiro could be intepreted as manipulation/re... re. damn what's the word? reaffirmation? no. SOMETHING. PRECAUTION. into getting them to stay in DMW, but I feel like I might be reaching regarding that. Now, by taking him out of DMW, if his memories are intact, I think, ultimately, the only way to keep him out is to have varying amounts of the Deadmen he's interested in NOT BE IN DMW. Ganta and/or Shiro would prooobably be a major factor in that, and getting Ganta to leave DMW (assuming a Ganta that's post Red Man) would probably require a rumour that the Red Man's outside DMW. (Actually, why did he stay when he could've escaped anyway? I think by that time he acknowledged that Tamaki was probably pulling him along with the (fake?) promises of seeing the Red Man in the Carnival Corpse? Though Toto came along and gave Ganta the impression Toto personally knows the Red Man SO!) TBH, I'd rather have as little impact on the apps of potential DMW appers to TST through my history, and, to be honest, if Ganta left DMW, Toto's unlikely to lose sight of him, but that's what's probably going to happen since LOOOL I'm the only DMW potential apper atm.

BAH, in short, I'll probably stick with memory loss to cover the parts of canon I have NFI what's going on yet, and probably as a way of changing his territory from DMW to whatever crew he ends up with if I end up apping.

THEN there's the complication of "...Well, I'm only in this body for the moment" and "But I was reset once..." HGNH What is this supposed to mean? Combined with earlier, "...Interesting. So you lived? The winner of the Carnival Corpse two years ago... The only Deadman ever able to stand against the Wretched Egg..."

Did Toto disappear because of the Carnival Corpse two years ago, or was it shortly after, when he started acting funny? Was his 'reset' because of that Carnival Corpse? It sort of implies that the Carnival Corpse two years ago was the Wretched Egg vs Mockingbird, though judging from words alone, that's not necessarily the case. Still, both Shiro and Toto have scars everywhere, so maybe it was because of that Carnival Corpse..? Then again, Tamaki says Mockingbird was the winner. There are two ways I'm interpreting this. 1) That Mockingbird really was the winner against the Wretched Egg, which gave Toto the reputation of the strongest Deadman. But something about the fight, or after, or something caused his disappearance? And 'disappearances' in DMW are treated like death? 2) that Carnival Corpse actually wasn't against the Wretched Egg, but they fought later? But then again, Tamaki probably wouldn't have remembered it if it wasn't significant. HGNHH OKAY I AM DONE I CAN'T BE BOTHERED THINKING ANYMORE AND I HAVE A TEST IN 20 MINUTES.

I feel kind of bad that I didn't end up apping to theoregontrail though, baw. I ended up changing my mind and wanted to app Bidoof there instead of Toto, but I got sidetracked, and now that DMW 25's come out... haaah I don't think I'll be poking around there :<

Edit: Continuation of the brain dump! The way Toto's words are phrased "...Well, I'm only in this body for the moment" kind of suggests that this isn't the body he had back when he was 'strong', but hmmm idk, might just be a way of reiterating what he's said in previous chapters, that currently he's very weak. And the other Deadmen who remember him (Senji, Choplin/Chaplin (I really need to get his name checked, huh), that person from Scar Chain) seem to recognise him on sight. So unless he hung around before he disappeared, I don't think he's actually had a bodyswap?

Actually. huh. A bodyswap would kind of explain the mixing up of gendered 'I's in earlier chapters. /lol there is much Wild Mass guessing here today :|

Random side thought. Toto seems to treat affection like cooties, despite throwing around a lot of 'love'. Dunno, seems to be just as much as a declaration of possession, really.

It's implied from Tamaki's words that Toto was gone for about 2 years, just what the hell had he been doing all that time, I wonder? ninjaing the vents to find information? hngh how will he act in a situation where he doesn't have the upper hand? Or that he doesn't know a lot about? I'm running through possible options on how to introduce him into TST, and I keep on thinking of him being a long time stowaway on board a ship, which is somewhat reminiscient of how i regard him in canon prior to his more formal introduction in DMW 24. But, of course, it's going to be a different situation; the people he'd reveal himself to would hardly be the sort to, like, welcome him and recognise him. The attacking might still be there, though. It'd be kind of hilarious if he was always a passenger, and just kind of ceiling'd for a good amount of time in game, but of course, that doesn't quite work. I could go the more ordinary route, and sign him on board a ship, but it doesn't feel... right? Maybe a little bit of both? Maybe stowaway for quite a long time, before revealing himself and getting a position? But then there's considerations on whether captains would even accept that kind of thing hahaha but at least I can talk through that if I don't think of anything else.

And... well, once again this is where I bitch about canon, about how it doesn't give me much outside of Shiro and Ganta to work with. Their influencing factor is everywhere, and there really is very, very little about anyone else. IDK, maybe I'd go for the kiddish facade with hints of crazy in the background, though that's a lot easier to pull of with logs, methinks. I don't even know how willing Toto is to touch technology. He seems to favour 'strength' of (natural, for a given value of natural) body rather than artificial technology. I foresee logs being his primary source of interaction. But then, I wonder, what will it take for the crazy to be explicitly shown? like, a lot of interaction in TST is likely to be something somewhat similar to the beginning of the party in chapter 24. Which makes me a little wary, because it is a side we don't see much in canon, but it's also a side I can't avoid just because of the nature of the game and the nature of the characters, and I know I'm going to be worried about showing too much of what is, essentially, headcanon if I do end up playing him. Will I end up making him too kiddish? is a worry, because there's this very beautiful balance of cuteness and creepy that canon has without being overtly either.

--

OKAY let's have some short Atsuro thoughts. I meant to get these down when I finished his ending, and I might as well get them down while I sort of remember what I thought, just with less references.

Atsuro sseems to have surprisingly low self-confidence, despite everything he says, which is probably why he gets lead around so much in every ending (that I've played anyway) other than his own.

Atsuro, despite often being the one to voice negative possibilities, also seems to have great faith in people ! He still has a rather realistic view, but seems to still believe in them, yup yup !

Also has a(nother) silly side he doesn't show to IRL friends, imo.

Doesn't care that Naoya dicked them around lots, he still is ultimately Atsuro's teacher, and I think Atsuro is really grateful! He certainly doesn't show much sign of hostility, and doesn't seem to feel betrayed by Naoya. He definitely started taking off the rose-coloured glasses. HNGHH I love Atsuro's ending. Really shows how much the 7 days let him grow.

random RE stuff: DIS standards (IEEE standard)

List of games Ten wants to play...

2009-10-18T11:41:57Z

... and are within my means to do so.

F-Zero
Fire Emblem, Shadow Dragon
Ice Climbers
Ico, Shadow of the Colossus
Kid Icarus
Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 and CoM (maybe! The annoying camera in 1 & 2 is very offputting for me)
Kirby Super Star
MGS 1 & 3
Mother 1-3
SSB, SSBB
Star Fox, Lylat Wars, Starfox Command
Super Metroid, Metroid Prime Hunters, Metroid Prime Pinball(!!)
The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Phantom Hourglass
Yoshi's Island

Somehow, this list is getting longer and longer. That's what, 28 games? And that doesn't include stuff I might've forgotten :| However, the chances of me finishing all of these, considering half of them are genres I am terrible at, are slim. You might notice a pattern with the majority of these games.

Edit: shimering2 I AM DISOWNING YOU. FOREVER.