Thursday, September 19, 2013

Last Rebellion



System:   PS3

Bought:   2012


Started:  Sept. 16th  2013
Beat:      Sept 18th 2013


Trophies:   19 out of 19


Idea:   The game takes place in the world of Junovald, a world where one of the Gods {Formival} has decided to make it where monsters just don't die. On the verge of death, the monsters souls leave their bodies and kind of mutate into meaner, stronger monsters.  This cycle can only be broken by one set up..
       Blades and Sealers, the Goddess Meitilia's answer to her counter parts dabbles. Blades can kill these beasts and then a Sealer can "seal" their souls to prevent them from resurrecting.
       You play as Nine, a reluctant Blade that was adopted by the King of the Country. One day the King brings a strange statuesque object into the castle, soon after Nine's adopted brother{Alfred} kills the King and then kills Nine as well.
       Then there is Aisha, a sealer of great power who Nine had just met before his quick demise. Oddly, she was there for Alfreds murders but he didn't touch her. Anyways, she uses a forbidden Sealer spell{Freyavalmis} to bring Nine back to life...sort of.
      Nine and Aisha are using the same body, when one is out in the real world the other is in the Vamino Room.  They can "switch out" anytime they like, always know what the other is doing and can talk to each other {even though it looks like you're talking to yourself}.
    So, Nine and Aisha set off to stop Alfred from doing whatever it is he's planning to.


Characters....

Nine Asfel;  A sarcastic little asshole that is always speaking his mind and seems to care about basically nothing, He's a very powerful Blade, but he hates Blades and Sealers.
       Reason for the Sealer hate is apparently that they are too self sacrificing and he hates that. By the end of the game though, I think he really has feelings for Aisha.

Aisha Romadine;  An extremely powerful Sealer, it's not known till much later but... her powers before casting the Forbidden spell were so strong that she couldn't control them.  She accidentally "sealed" a lot of peoples souls at one point and was the cause for the Sealer/Blade Wars many years ago.
       People wanted her dead.

Sephie Enis;  A sealer girl with catish ears and tail, Nine/Aisha find her in the laboratory that the bad guys were killing Sealers in.  At first she thinks Nine is her "Daddy", he apparently smells like him.  Later it's found out that he "smells" like him because Sephie's father is one of the innocent people that Aisha had sealed.. many years ago.
So Adorable & Irritating.


Jacob Wybrim;  An older man, he was once a Blade and is now an inventor of sorts. He's the one who made the Vandred...


Alfred Formilio;  The son of the ex-king and Nine's adopted brother, he's a Blade just like Nine but... he's nowhere near as powerful.
        One day his father allows him to go into battle with his Sealer, Milly.  The two of them were in love, it's said that she's the one that dies but....really... He must have.  Milly casts the Freyavalmis spell and saves his life, but she's not strong enough to last all that long and ends up dying.
      This pretty much made Alfred go nutty and he decides with the help of some freaky guy to resurrect Milly.

Azelride Lorvin;  The current King of the country, Nine and Alfreds "dad". He dies in the beginning of the game, but his body goes missing. Turns out he is actually the Final Boss, not much of one but he is...
      He wanted Alfred or Nine to destroy the barriers that he himself had created, not really expecting Nine to be the one to live of course... Now the King is uber strong and the final battle ensues.
      Back again, the King really wasn't evil. Apparently he was just using his body to draw up Formival's power and when his body is destroyed the power goes...somewhere.
   

Thoughts:  This game wasn't....terrible.  It was extremely easy though and the story line was mediocre. I did enjoy the battles though, having to hit each monsters body part in a certain order to get max damage and gain max exp was actually really fun.  Addicting even.   That's probably why I over leveled and some parts of the game were just a breeze.
       The only irritating monster in the game was, I believe... Orange 4.  The status Ailments were a real pain in the ass and the battle went on forever, I probably just did it wrong and there was some easy way to off it but yea..
      All and all, the game cost like 10 Dollars. I got to kill Prinny's and got a really easy Platinum Trophy out of it.


The End:   I shouldn't say it was disappointing since I wasn't really expecting much to begin with, but it was. You only get a vague feel to what happened after you defeat Alfred and the King.  It doesn't even say if Nine becomes the King or that helper of the King does..
       After the credits it does show that Sephie is still with Jacob, she smells "Daddy Wannabe"... Then says that everyone says he's "gone".  Which I figure to mean he went exploring or something though he could be dead. No idea.
      Then it shows Aisha right after she had cast the Freyavalmis spell to save Nine, wondering why she'd do that with someone she had just met.. My guess is she was lonely.  The other Kingdom had her locked up alone for so long that she just didn't want to be alone anymore.
       Are they dead? Not sure. Doubt it.  Are they still together? Probably.  Will never know what exactly happened since the game did so poorly.

   The funnest part of this whole game is the end, hunting the Oranges and Prinnys.  ^_^   The names for the Trophies themselves are quite amusing too, maybe the most amusing I've seen so far.


Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Azumanga Daioh



Episodes:  26

How:  DVD  {Owned}

Grade:    A

Summary: Azumanga Daioh is about high school life through the eyes of six girls with unusual personalities: Chiyo (the 10-year-old genius), Osaka (the resident airhead), Sakaki (the shy one prone to cat bites), Tomo (the loose cannon), Yomi (the short-tempered one) and Kagura (the resident jock).


Thoughts:  I attempted to watch this show years ago and couldn't even get through the first episode, it bored me to tears.  Now, I'm not sure why... maybe my preference has changed and I like more casual and unusually amusing shows.
      Azumanga is of course a slice of life type show and it surrounds just one group of girls and a few teachers within the school, there's nothing all that magical about it {other than Chiyo's father?}and there's no fighting and really no fanservice either.
     It's just, life...for these girls.  An amusing life but still...


Who we have....


Chiyo Mihama- A 10 year old in High School, at least at the start of the show. I suppose by the end she's... 12 or 13.  She's obviously incredibly smart to have skipped from 5th grade all the way up to tenth, which of course is a bit of a running joke in the series. Seeing she's smarter then most the older students and she's just so tiny...
         Her family is also quite rich, though you never actually see her parents in the series {not counting the strange Chiyo's Father floating around.}  It's Chiyo's summer house that they spend their breaks at, including the teachers oddly.
     Her only true disadvantage is her size, making her other unconfident in the sports and physical activity area.
      At the end of the series she's the only one not taking the college entrance exams, deciding to go abroad to America where they are a little more tolerant of such a young person going into Colleges.

Tomo Takino-   The annoying, overly energetic yet lazy academically girl.  She's been best friends with Yomi since grade school and loves to irritate her. If she's on the screen she's usually doing something to cause some sort of ruckus.
    Apparently, she's not a total moron though.  For High School Entrance exams she wanted to get intot he same HS as Yomi and did.  I really think Yomi telling her she couldn't do it was what fueled her to actually do it however....  after being accepted she went back to her Knucklehead Ways.

Ayumu Kasuga/Osaka-  I love this character, she transferred in from Osaka and figuring that she'd act like a normal Osakan, Tomo nicknamed her "Osaka" which really stuck.. Even to the point of her teachers calling her it and it was in the official sheets for the school.
     Seeing as I watched the show with an English Dub, her dub actress gave her a slow, southern type sound which made her quite amusing.   She's a bit dense when it comes to pretty much everything and is a member of the "Bonkuras" or "Knuckleheads".
     Somehow, she did pass an entrance exam and get into a college.

Koyomi Mizuhara-  Yomi for short, she's been friends with Tomo since grade school and is pretty much her exact opposite.  Smart, calm...not really annoying.   She does seem to get a little annoyed that Chiyo scores better grades then her and at the end of the series has to wait the longest to see if she gets into any of her college picks.
       Yomi also has a bit of a body image problem and is constantly dieting...then falling off her diet... Tomo kind of pokes fun at this throughout the show.

Sakaki-  The mature looking one, tall and well endowed she's incredible with athletics {though she's not in any clubs} and apparently not so bad with academics either.  With her attitude rather distant most the time the fact she LOVES cute things is lost on most people.
      She's always trying to pet this stray cat, but it keeps biting her.. she's also absolutely in love with Chiyo's dog Mr Tadakichi.  It's not until near the end of the series when Sakaki finally gets a cat that likes her, an Iriomote cat gets attached to her while on the class trip to Okinawa.
     At the end of the series she decides to go to school to become a Veterinarian and since she's moving out of her parents house she can actually keep some pets.

Kagura-   She joins the main class in the 2nd year, only being shown a little during the 1st.  She seems to have been brought over so that Yukari's class would have a better chance during the Athletic contest during the year.
    She's on the schools swim team, is very athletic and has some sort of one sided rivalry going on with Sakaki.  Who tends to beat her at most everything without even trying.


Minamo Kurosawa/Nyamo- She's the gym teacher and in many ways she's the "Yomi" in the best friend relationship with Yukari {who is the "Tomo"}.  The students really seem to like her and Yukari seems a bit jealous by this.
    In one episode, during the summer beach house events she gets drunk and tells the girls about sex. Most of the girls are quite impressed by this but.. poor little Chiyo may be scared for life.

Yukari Tanizaki-  The girls homeroom and English teacher, she's a bit of a....nutjob. Yep, she's just a freaking lunatic sometimes.  She's best friends with the gym teacher Nyamo and likes to freeload off her.



The End:   The girls all get into college and I'm not really sure what the teachers end up doing, That's pretty much all there is to say about that.  Oh, They also ALL get to go to the amusement park together seeing that Yomi missed the last time due to being ill.


-Other Stuff-

The only male that really shows up in the series is Kimura, an eccentric teacher that is a bit of a pervert. Always trying to peek at the girls in the swimsuits or any other revealing outfit.  He also has some strange hangup on Kaorin.

Kaori-  Called Kaorin by her friends and the perv Kimura, she has a very strange infatuation with Sakaki. It's although she's in love with her, but Sakaki doesn't even notice.

Chiyo's Father- Although he's never seen in the series, Sakaki had a dream that he was an odd looking flying cat alien.

Chiyo's Hair-  Osaka has many dreams about Chiyo's pigtails and that they have the power to make people fly. Also, that they are controlling Chiyo and if you take them off she dies.



Monday, September 9, 2013

Dragon Fantasy Book 1



System:  PS3

Bought:  August 28th

Started:   August 28th
Beat:   September 6th

Trophies:  12 out of 12


Idea:  This is an "old school" RPG, random battles and irritating dungeons.  It's broken down into three "Chapters" and the "Intermission",  the chapters revolve around a certain character and the stories play off one another.
       Chapter 1; I'd say it's the main chapter that follows Ogden, he use to be a major hero that saved the princess at the cost of his hair. Now?  Just one of the Queens Knights.  During a ceremony where the Queen was passing the kingdom to her son {Prince Marion}, a dark knight shows up out of nowhere and kidnaps the prince.
        Ogden attempts to fight the Dark Knight, but gets his butt kicked... he's then ported off to another place and the adventures start.  Over the few hours that the chapter lasts Ogden meets pirates, gathers an armor set, regains his hero status by saving the prince and defeating the dark lord. Yey!

        Chapter 2; "The Heir Apparent"  This chapter follows Prince Anders, Marion's brothers. After his brother is kidnapped and a plague overtakes the castle he and a couple guards set off to find a strange Artifact. {I forgot the name}.

         Chapter 3;  "Operation Desert Plunder" Centers around Jerald and Ramona and really has the worse ending of the three chapters. Ramona is Jeralds niece and the two of them are trying to find a way out of the desert kingdom of Sandheim.
       The two of them need 20k to buy a passport to get out of the Kingdom, once they finally save up the money the guards and "king" are assholes and won't let you go.  That and of course the fact their demons of some sort...
       Oh, yea... Jerald gets a hold of the artifact that Anders had sent out and apparently developed some sort of uber powers.

        Intermission;  This was actually a bit dumb, but that's okay....Many of the characters from the other chapters are present and they are somehow knocked into what seems to be an RPG...  It was just... odd.
      The ending was cute though, once the sleeping guy wakes up he / commands them all back to their own world.


Thoughts:  This game was very, basic...the script was rather amusing in the beginning but.... it did start to drag a little.  I probably won't be buying the second one unless{until} there's a price drop like this one had {2.50}.
       It was a nice little jaunt to take my mind off all the Assassin Creed stuff I had been playing before.


The End:  It's in the air really, Prince saved, artifact found, but with the third chapter you aren't really sure what happens.  Did the guy destroy all the bad guys or not? Who knows.  It will probably be continued in Dragon Fantasy Book 2.....

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

August ~ I'm Older!

Yes, My birthday is August 3rd.

A year older, at least physically.... I'm still as immature as I was when I was 18. Other then my GED I am pretty much in the same place as I was when I was 18 as well, no job, no license.  Same bi-polar, anxiety ridden, people avoiding place....

Oh well, At least I got the GED before it goes to hell in 2014.

Now, to the spending..... or gifts.


As you get older birthdays get a little more "meh", but I am easy to please so...whatever... My dad is really the only one who gives me stuff since, I don't really hang around anyone..





Wind Chimes:    Yes, I like wind chimes. Not the small, dinky, high-pitched type either. My dad also likes wind chimes so this was really a win-win situation.










Arisa 10:  Got 8 and 9 last month, Have to actually tell my dad which volumes of these Manga I don't have so he doesn't wander off and get ones I all ready have.  Still haven't read past volume 5 though.





Natsume's Book of Friends 10 & 11:   Also Birthday presents, slowly but surely I am catching up with this series.








Azumanga Daioh Box Set: Time was running out to use my 15% off Birthday Coupon at Half Price Books.
The first one I went to had a couple of the DVDs from this set, which luckily I decided not to bite.  The second HPBs I entered had the entire ADV Box Set, not the Slim-pack that Sentai put out.
    The Box, Volume 1 and Volumes 2 through 6 still unopened.  Three of which had metal lapel pins in the cases.  Yey!!  Honestly, I've never even watched this show... I tried the first couple episodes online a long time ago but... It just didn't work for me at the time.
   Another chance given.




Network Purchases:  I charged 5 Dollars to my PSN Account. Why?  Because I couldn't just put 2.50 in there for a game.  Dumb Network.  Oh well.... I bought..



Dragon Fantasy Book 1;   I was playing with the idea of getting this game back when it first came out, but I couldn't really see myself buying it for 10$s.  Wait, waited, now with Dragon Fantasy Book 2 releasing soon they decided to lower the price for Book 1.
         It's really old school, maybe even older then me {Not really}, It feels older then me though.




Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien;  It was free, that's all I can really say. I downloaded it, messed with it a little and decided to come back later. It has potential... Much more then those stupid Pinball Games.

Hitman Absolution;  I grabbed it, I may never play it, but I grabbed it. People say it's a good game, I question that seriously...

What's with the Pinball Games?  Seriously, I will not be fooled again. The last one you just got a few tables for free and then you were stuck buying more. Not going to do that again, No,No,No.

I all ready own Machinarium so, having it free on the PSN is nice for people who didn't all ready buy it.



Azumanga Daioh -                     27.00
Dragon Fantasy Book 1 -               2.50
Presents -                            00.00

Total:                              29.50




Why did I get rid of CrunchyRoll?   In early August the PS3 App started to screw up, while watching shows the dialogue would continue but the video and subtitles would slow down.
           Okay, there's a leak in the Apps Memory.  Fine, if this happened after watching multiple episodes I didn't really mind restarting the App after five episodes.   It got so bad that it would do it half way through one episode.
            Contacted customer service, they said to read the FAQs and do what it says there. Don't you think I all ready did that?  *eye roll*   Posting on the forum didn't help either.
          Good'Bye CrunchyRoll, I may try you again in a few months.   For now I will watch it free online, AdBlock is there for a reason.



Free Games {The Growing List}

Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One
Darksiders
InFAMOUS 2
Quantum Conundrum
Closure
Joe Danger 2: The Movie
Spec. Ops: The Line
The Cave
MALICIOUS
Labyrinth Legends
Sleeping Dogs
Knytt Underground
Pinball Arcade
Saints Row: The Third
Deus Ex Human Revolution
Uncharted 3
Little Big Planet Karting
Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee HD
Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien
Hitman Absolution






Azumanga Pins