extrinsical

Lack of Shirou/Rin fanfictions makes me sad. Is that pairing that unpopular, or am I just not seeing them..?

It's a little funny how my view changed - I don't recall really liking Fate/Stay Night that much the couple years ago I watched/played it. Hadn't even bothered to finish the HF route when the full patch came out. :P

Had some time recently, though. During the slow, quiet nights when I finally have time to myself to spend on mundane things. Got around to replaying the routes to refresh my memory, before moving on to HF. Also find myself liking UBW route more than the rest.

I guess this puts two visual novels on the list of my favorites - Ever17, and now FSN. Not sure why I didn't like FSN much back then though.

Hmm. Maybe my perspective on things did change a lot more than I thought compared to years ago. Oh well.

~~I will also say that Shirou is a constant source of annoyance that brings out a sort of weary/exasperated/resigned amusement.~~

Fate/Stay Night Scorecard:
Plot: 9
Graphics: 8
Sound/Music: 7
Gameplay: 7.5
Overall: 8

Considering all the rants and raves about Prince of Tennis that I heard of, I'm sorry to say that the manga isn't as good as I thought it would be. If at all. Dunno about anime, but I'm not interested in finding out.

Or, well, I suppose it could be good...if several elements were not in it. But then again, I'm more for realistic stuff than...spiritual...thingies ~~Gurren Lagaan being one of the notable ones~~...that I tend to find absurd. I can see why other people seems to just love it though.

I think.

Also watched Regios. Finally. It's...*rubs chin* interesting, I guess. It's not bad, but not that good to make me sing praises. That..Meicchi?.. or something - the girl who got saved by Layfon twice - annoyed me with all her wishy-washy-ness. And the main character reminded me of a few people in this...dysfunctional circle that I'm in. In various ways.

Seeing that he's an idiot and all, after all.

Right. Anyway.

Now...I want a new, long manga series that will occupy me for a good while. Preferably completed. Anime works too. Ones that I have never read or watched. Any recommendations?

I've tried the Utawarerumono game.

And the verdict:

Anime > Game.

The game didn't really make sense of some points, and did not explain what the anime had explained well enough. The timeline is vague and somewhat hard to read at best. There were a couple of repeating scenes. The romance was...actually, what romance? Overall, it felt pretty flat to me, as Hakuoro seems to be randomly hooking up girls aside from maybe Karura. I'm willing to count Eruruu in, but only marginally. And knocking up Yuzuha was possibly the worst plotline ever. That's not even counting certain...scenes. I have nothing against words. Words are...innocent by themselves. But there are certain words that should not be used in certain scenes, because they make my eyebrow twitch and make me fastforward the scene.

It didn't really feel like a game either. Just like a story with some clicks that directs you to here and there. At least with Type-Moon games there are chances of game over in choices, but here, nada. No matter what you click, the game progresses. Only difference is that you may get some extra nice tidbit scenes not seen in anime. Sure, there are some battles to go to -- but they are ridiculously easy to beat and henceforth do not count as gameplay in my view. >_>

Also, I think I like the art style of anime better than the game.

In other words, the game is...mediocre, at best. I was going to say bad, but I'm willing to relent a little due to the fact I may be biased towards the anime.

End of verdict.

Current Mood: calm

Exam month = procrastinating month = writing month = no-study month = play-game month.

Deducted Conclusion: I did not study. I wrote. I procrastinated. I took exam. I played game(s).

And so.

This will probably be the first and last time I recommend a japanese game...or a visual novel, to be precise.

For one, that's because I have barely any knowledge of japanese language. And secondly, visual novels are often linked to 18+ rated material for obvious reasons, which is why I never really tried any of the japanese games aside from a few that really caught my interest; such as Tsukihime and Fate/Stay Night. Those two were the only ones I have actually bothered to try, really. They are in japanese, of course, but there are english patches available on the internet, which is why I did play them.

In anycase, the game that I do want to point out has no need for patches -- because it has already been translated to English officially. Yes, there is a PC version. And no, there's no 18-rated scenes in here.

Ever 17 -Out of Infinity-

There are two characters that can be controlled, and by the time the prologue ends, you will be sticking to just one of them. The story starts off rather typically...a visit to a theme park deep in the oceans. And, of course, the theme park gets flooded, and a few people gets trapped. But that's really just a prologue.

You're probably predicting a...fairly predictable game from this little prologue. Guy flirts with girl, get girl, save girl from flood, win game, end story. It is. Buuuuuuuuuut that's just the general gist to it. The story goes much further than just wooing some girls, which made this game so interesting.

...I don't really want to spoil anything, really. Though I'm usually fine on getting spoilers or giving them out, this game was exceptionally well done that I just refuse to say anything. XD Let's just say there's more to it than just some random flood.

As this site would put it, and probably better than I could ever say, I quote:

"Wonder not, Ever 17 keeps player guessing, give some incomplete information, and the entire picture is like a being put together piece by piece. First time the an ending is achieved, the players would find that not all questions are answered. Not until you are able to jump out of the box of common plot, the story is incomplete. During the process, as you are motivated by "get a better ending" or "get to the bottom of things", you become a character of the game. It is wholesomely different, from any traditional RPG/AVG where you "role-playing" a character. Everything you do, save game, load game, start a new game, achieve an ending... can be rationalized as a part of the game universe. Not until the very last, you don't realize that you are being deceived by a paradox which the ultimate creator is you, Blick Winkel..."

Also, I do not advise you to explore said site aside from the page I specifically linked to. At least until you have finished the game. It's full of spoilers. Seriously.

It's not very often I get this confused, and this game had done a remarkable job of just making me want to solve this little mystery.

But, of course, there are several problems with the translated game. For one, translations are not very accurate...though I'm going to say it's...okay. It's not bad, some little grammatical and whatnot here and there, but on the whole, good enough. Better than I have expected it to be, really. Unless if you're really picky about it, the errors you may notice in the game probably wouldn't irritate you. And two, there was a certain ending...or scenario...that felt a little flat, but, well. Other than that, I don't really have any complaints for this game. Just be prepared to sit for a long time as you read and read and read.. >.>

If you don't feel like playing but just want to read, go ahead and google the walkthrough. It's a visual novel, after all. Mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, philosophy, logic issues, of what is right and wrong (is there any right and wrong?), some little mix of psychological problems...and, of course, realism. If those things are stuff align to your taste, it's probably the game/novel for you. It definitely is for me.

I'm tempted to say give it a shot, because I did find it to be my kind of thing, not to mention well done. Though, this game is probably the type of game that you will either love or hate. Or maybe get uncomfortable with. Or maybe annoyed, though I imagine that's mostly because you're missing pieces of puzzle to solve the mystery. But if you like what I like, then I'll recommend it to you. :P

There is a trial version (official) of this game somewhere, I believe. Could be found with googling if you're interested. I'm too lazy to find links. On the other hand, some of you may find going to TokyoTosho to be a good idea for some reason...

That said, to end this little review..

Ever 17 -Out of Infinity- Scorecard:
Plot: 9.4
Graphics: 8.9
Sound/Music: 8.2
Gameplay: 7.4
Overall: 8.5

Ever 17 has definitely piqued my interest in visual novels. My next probable target of game to check out?

Phantom of Inferno.

I heard it's good, and it is translated, but I've also heard a lot of technical issues that may just stop me from obtaining it...but, well. I guess we will see.

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: KID - Karma

I've picked up a new anime.

Well, new for me. It's subbed sometime in...2004 or 2005, I think. In all honesty, this is one of those anime that I never imagined myself to be picking up, unless if I heard of recommendations ~~or have been force-fed~~.

I mean...well, the title of the shows is a literal turn off to me, and I'm sure to a few of you, as well.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, is the title, along with it's sequel, MGL Nanoha A's.

I'm visualizing a few eyebrows twitching right now. And I'm probably right. XD

Heh. To be fair, I had no plans to watch this anime either. At least, that was the idea until I watched episode 9 of Nanoha StrikerS. Which is an anime I picked out of curiosity and boredom. The first seven episodes had been some character building, but nothing really exciting. Contributing to that fact might be because I hadn't watched the prequels to StrikerS before.

But by episode 8, I had gotten a little curious. The sudden twist of events in that episode was rather intriguing, and surprising. Then by episode 9, when there had been some flashbacks on prequels, my curiosity got the better of me. So, of course, I downloaded, bracing myself all the while for idiocy to pop up in the prequel.

So it was a rather pleasant surprise. The two prequels turned out to be much, much better than I had expected it to be - and both of them are even in my list of favourites now. I'm even having half a mind to pick up the DVDs if I can manage it.

Right. So. *pushes spectacles up the nose a little, and glasses glints off the light* And that, ladies and gentleman, would be my latest anime recommendation. The first in the three nanoha series revolves around a little ordinary girl aged nine (yes, nine), Takamachi Nanoha, who one day found a little injured TALKING ferret and a small red marble-like-stone.

It appears she had an untapped humongous amount of magic potential in her, and it was through that stone and ferret (who later revealed to actually be a ~~pervert~~ human) that her powers come into play, and then a typical journey of battle(s) and so forth came.

Also adding to that would be some particularly infamous transformation scenes that were similar to several other anime we know, but lets not say them. If you think you won't be able to handle them, skip them. That's my best advice.

Predictable, yes. And as it is, being nine year old means the anime needs to be suitable for kids. So, yes, regrettably, there was also not as much blood as I hoped it to have. Would have definitely added another realistic touch if there was. But other than that, there were a few refreshing changes; such as her, the main character, are not the usual fare of our whiny main characters, or ultra cold or...you know, the ones we see pretty often.

So it was rather refreshing, and also realistic enough for me to really get into it (I watched nanoha A's three times, lol. Episode 9 is officially my favourite for that one). The battle scenes, too, were surprisingly nice. The animation was pretty good, and the moves were realistic enough that I can see it happening. There were also quite a few twists that were surprising and definitely not things I predicted. It's also interesting to see that she never did face off with her fated enemy in the end, due to certain events. Similarly, or more so, that is also the case for Nanoha A's. Normally it goes, see fated/strongest enemy, fight in the final battle, win, the good triumph. But this, this is different. Both endings had a bittersweet touch to them. It wasn't entirely happily ever after, not everything turned out to be perfectly fine, but everything about them emphasized life must go on, and I like that.

More importantly, it also focused on things I like to see. Character building and bonding between characters were surprisingly well done, something I don't see often enough ~~but I'm probably being too picky~~ and everything from the first episode to the last wrapped up nicely, leaving little to no loose ends. And the manga, which is canon, also did nothing but make it better. But it would be wise to not read it till the anime is watched. The manga only covered missing scenes of the anime.

Pretty cool pic. I have a feeling it's fan made, though, but I like it, so it goes here. :D Click for larger version. I will admit I'm wondering what the original anime for this pose is. It looks vaguely familiar.

Anyway - So, yes, this is definitely one of the better anime(s) out there, in my opinion. Nanoha and Nanoha A's, I mean. As far as StrikerS is concerned, I'm still on the neutral side. StrikerS begins ten years later after the prequel, and moves a little too slow - even if that allows the new characters to grow; but their teamwork and all...well, there's not enough of a realistic touch for me to find it agreeable too much. It's a little bit of a disappointment compared to the two prequels. But it's picking up its pace, and this one is 26 eps long, so it could still be saved. I hope it will.

That said, the only complaint I have as of now is lack of fanfictions. There's such a huge fan database out there, but there's so little fanfictions. Weird. =/

Though I suppose it can't be helped much, seeing as they are nine year olds and all... *sigh* But dammit, their high school years is a big untapped potential. There's a particular pairing I favor, and is something I would like to see go canon. But it's definitely not the human-turned-ferret with Nanoha, and that leaves only one other.

A pity that this anime is more about friends than romance. Especially their age.

On other news, thanks for the concern about my emo-post before. I'm managing fine right now and...well, fine, pretty much. It's nice to know there are people covering my back, however unconsciously I may not be able to accept that. Not to say I don't believe you guys, it's just...more of my own problem. An issue about hesitance and doubt, I should say.

Likely something that is going to be something I cannot be rid off quickly, I think. It's surprising enough that I would actually write that post out, when in most cases I would have just kept quiet.

In anycase, humor me and grab the anime. Give it a shot. If your taste on anime is like mine, you will like it.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Hiroaki Sano - Namida no Imi, Negai no Yukue

riffling through it

excerpts from the soul

(no subject)

Pot says hi to Kettle.

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

Profile

Links

Expand Cut Tags