Coexistance — Are There Rightful Successors In Tournament Fighting Games?

A friend mentioned to me, earlier, about some opinions he'd heard of the recently released "anime fighter," Persona 4 Arena.

"It's...Persona, but it's not Guilty Gear. The expectation is that when GGACXX gets re-released on current-gen consoles, everyone who's serious about fighting games will switch over to it and leave P4A to the fanboys, fangirls, weeaboos and people like my friend who bought it only for the word "PERSONA" on the box. They think the hype is only recent, everyone found it a bit gimmicky, but said it had relatively solid mechanics. Even the guy who brought it admitted that he was just waiting for GGACXX to re-release."

My personal fanboyism for the recent Persona games aside, something about similar views irks me. Not going to try and put words in people's mouths, since not everything I say draws directly from this quote, but it drew lines to points that I've been thinking about.

For one, there's the implication that the hype for P4A rides on the popularity of the Persona 3 and 4 games, and once that dies down, the crowd will thin out and give way to the Guilty Gear/Blazblue 3 crowd. The fundamental problem with that is the precedence of other competitive games that draws a crowd from similar fanboys/fangirls that still receive hype. The Super Smash Bros. series drawing on Nintendo fans is a prime example, and there's no way Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 (or just about any game in the Versus series) doesn't attempt to appeal to its respective fandoms. If these games can have strong, active scenes after the initial draw has (likely) passed, then it doesn't fit that P4A wouldn't be able to retain a scene solely because its initial hype will have passed in the same manner. Hell, there are people who aren't even familiar with Persona and are playing the game because they've heard it's solid. That's pretty much similar to someone getting into Guilty Gear for the first time, honestly, or any other game that doesn't have a pre-established character/theme base to draw interest from (like Skullgirls).

Second, and an issue I've been conflicting with for a while, is the comparison of certain games to the point that people theorize that X game will replace Y game when it's released. When Blazblue: Calamity Trigger was released, it and its succeeding, updated versions essentially replaced the last version of Guilty Gear in most tournaments. When MvC3 came out, Tatsunoko vs Capcom was tossed aside. Now, what DOESN'T bother me is the actual replacement of the games on the main tournament lists. Events can only host so many games in the interest of time, money and resources, after all. What bothers me is the thought process in that certain games are SUPPOSED to be replaced, as though the newer game (before it's even released) was naturally supposed to replace the older one. It makes sense for something like the transition from Street Fighter III: Third Strike to Street Fighter IV, which, while they are two separate games, are sequential titles in the same series. But I was actually confused to hear what people thought about TvC being dropped for MvC3. These were definitely not the same game. While some general mechanics were shared, there was enough variation between the two that they could co-exist, y'know, like how MvC2 and TvC were able to run alongside each other at EVO 2010. From that alone, it'd make more sense just to say "Oh, MvC3 will replace MvC2, naturally," and leave TvC out of the conversation altogether. I believe there were some other circumstances that removed TvC from the main stages, but hopefully my point is there, in regard to speculation. Just like I don't believe Blazblue should be outright replaced by P4A, I don't believe the new Guilty Gear should replace P4A when it comes out. Regardless of apparent similarities and the fact that all three games were developed by Arc System Works, each game is unique enough that they should be able to stand on their own merit. If one is necessarily to overtake the other for a regular game slot at events, it shouldn't be solely on the basis that it's the most recent game in the market (with sequential titles in a single series being the exception) or by which game is more "serious" than another, but by dedication of their respective scenes to keep the game active. Not the best example, since these are sequential to each other, but why, in part, do you think both Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. Melee can both have active scenes at the same time?

All that said, how does a tournament host decide which games to implement into its lineup? Popularity is the obvious answer. I've said a lot of shit about how games should stand on their own merit, implying that similar games can coexist in the same tournament, but if there are too many games to choose from and not enough time to accommodate them, then something has to go and, unfortunately, the current anime fighters draw too many parallels to each other to not start pulling weeds from there first. For these games, I believe one of them will end up more pulling significantly more tournament entrants than the others (personally hoping that P4A comes out/stays on top) and solidify a frequent spot in the forthcoming tournament seasons. If the Guilty Gear crowd has the strength to pull it off, more power to the players (disclaimer: this doesn't mean I won't play myself), but all the talk of transitioning to/replacing games before a significant amount of results can be accumulated from the games in question is unwarranted and doesn't have a sound base to stand on.

I believe that's all I had on my mind. If there were some other points about the matter I'd forgotten while typing this (I feel like there were), I'll make an edit. If there are parts you feel the need to contest against, comment about it. In the meantime, don't sleep on current games, just because you retain more anticipation for a newer, similar game coming out.

Competitive Pokemon: Old Gen vs New Gen

There's going to be quite a bit of bias in this post, since I've played the first three gens extensively in a competitive environment and the last two I have limited experiences and only in their OU tier environments. But I figure if people can give first impressions of GSC as a "stall" generation, then I'm in the right to hold that kind of bias (pretty sure there's a fallacy there, but w/e). The goal of this post is to outline what the first three generations of competitive Pokemon (RBY, GSC, and ADV) are about and go into what I dislike about the later gens (DPP and BW). For the sake of things, I'm only related OU tier play. Additionally, this isn't a read for people who only/mostly care about having fun in-game. That's fine and all, and I have no qualm with that. Anywho:

Red/Blue/Yellow (Gen I)

Probably considered the worst competitive setting for Pokemon, and for relatively good reason. If the competitive community didn't already complain about Pokemon's luck factors, this gen gives them even more to snivel about. For those that are unaware, the major factor here is that critical hits are determined by a Pokemon's Speed stat, as opposed to later generations, where crits have a 6.25% of happening at all times. That means Pokemon like Tauros and Starmie are critical hit fiends, landing extra damage about 20% of the time. This also means that a Pokemon with a high critical hit ratio attack (Slash, Razor Leaf, etc.) with a base 65 Speed stat or higher will critical hit 100% of the time with that attack. Factor in widespread paralysis (because a lot of OUs have access to Thunder Wave and some Pokemon don't have a large enough movepool to use anything else except Body Slam for their last move) and a freeze status that does not defrost unless you use a Fire-type move or Haze, and you have a gen where luck can turn things around instantly for player, regardless of the skill gap.

As derpy as that sounds there are a number of thing to be appreciated about this gen. For one thing, it helps a fact set in that Pokemon has luck factors. However obvious that is, it seems like whenever a lot of players get haxed, they must cry endlessly after battle about how luck screwed them over and how much different the battle would have gone if Hydro Pump hadn't missed three times in a row. Considering the battle could have gone any kind of way in regards to luck, such whining is unwarranted. Luck is part of the game, and you should expect it to happen at any time. RBY helps that fact set in. Because luck plays such a prevalent part in a battle, you really can't be mad that your Snorlax was full paralyzed for 3 turns straight, because you probably froze the opponent's Chansey or critical hit that Snorlax with a Psychic when it was set to finish your Alakzam off.

Another thing to appreciate about this gen are the movepools, or lack thereof. There's a simplicity to the game where optimal movesets are not diverse and where a Pokemon's movepool might only give it 2-3 relevant moves, yet a skilled player can make the most of what they have. Breaking down walls is also not *as* much of a chore as it can be in later gens, since your premier physical walls are things like Golem and Rhydon (and Cloyster?), to which Tauros answers with Blizzard, Snorlax with Surf/Blizzard, and Persian with Bubblebeam (yes, Bubblebeam) and your special walls are Chansey and Alakazam (Snorlax is not a special wall just yet).

In summary, it's a relatively offensive gen with not a lot of set up moves that relies often on raw power and a very common luck factor to break through opposing defenses. Defenses which must improvise on how it handles certain Pokemon, as there are no Leftovers to help with health recovery and there is not always a solid answer to certain threats (except Chansey vs special moves). It's easy to pick up, however monotonous it is to see the same 4 Pokemon on every team, and difficult to dislike, unless you're an aforementioned whiner.

Gold/Silver/Crystal (Gen II)

First thing someone says when looking at the competitive OU environment in this gen is that it's a "stall metagame." That is a common misconception, depending on how you look at it.

To explain, and this spans across both Gen I and II, all of a Pokemon's stats are maxed. There are factors that influence stats, like DVs and IVs (don't worry about that), but a Pokemon can max ALL of its stats, and is not limited by the EV capacity of later gens. That means moves hit harder, but it also means Pokemon can generally take more damage before fainting.

Next, GSC introduces the Steel-type. This is important because of Skarmory. What RBY never had to worry about (Normal types could Surf/Blizzard an incoming Rock type) and what later gens had measurements for (Magneton/Magnezone trap and OHKO Skarmory, an Pokemon just became stronger in general to where even certain physical moves could bear down on it) is none other than a metal bird and the premier physical wall of GSC and generations to come. It's not something gotten rid of easily, to make way for the Pokemon it keeps in check, so that Curse/Return/Earthquake/Rest Snorlax you're conserving as your only/main offense will be set in to wait for quite a bit of time before it actually gets a chance to do relevant damage.

And then, there's Sleep Talk. Sleep Talk works a bit differently in this game, as when you Sleep Talk and it selects Rest while you are at less than full health, you recover to full health and your sleep counter resets. This is appealing to a number of users since you can attack from a defensive position. Very dangerous when Pokemon with offense boosting moves, like Vaporeon and Snorlax are involved. Very...dull when something isn't boosting its offense in the process. The exceptions being Zapdos and Raikou, who have the Special Defense and moves to take a Sleep Powder from Exeggutor and potentially fire back a Drill Peck/Crunch/Hidden Power [Ice] for some considerable damage. Having the strongest STABed (Same Type Attack Boost) Thunder/Thunderbolts in the game isn't a bad deal either.

So mix this all together and let it sit. Then take the numerous offensive threats in the game- Machamp, Marowak, Snorlax, and Vaporeon to name only a few. These are all things that can boost their offense and cause some big damage if you don't have an answer for them. So what do you do?

...You make sure you have an answer for them. That mentality leads for a lot of players (particularly players who are new to this gen) to end up creating stall teams. It's a legitimate idea to make sure you can counter a lot of things (because it's a lot harder to revenge kill Pokemon here), but then you leave little room for your own offense. Slapping Rest/Sleep Talk/Double-Edge/Earthquake Tauros on your team isn't the best of ideas if you have no way of addressing its counters. And so it's often these kinds of players that are often stalling things out (along with some veterans that prefer a more stallish approach). Others are working to conserve their offense and/or "win condition." When these two ideals clash, you good 200+ turns of PP stretching goodness.

As an example, I recently faced a player for 296 turns. My main strategy was holding on to a Lovely Kiss/Belly Drum Snorlax to finish off 4 remaining Pokemon while having Starmie spin away the Spikes that my opponent tried to lay down with Forretress. While I had these, my opponent literally had nothing he could do to me, since most of his strategy hindered on just letting me trip up over Spikes. During his team building, he had not considered any procedure for getting rid of my Spinner, but rather had THREE resistances to my Snorlax (Tyranitar, Skarmory, Forretress). His sole offense was Rest/Sleep Talk/Curse/Body Slam Snorlax, with only his Tyranitar to take on Ghost types. Nothing there to really pressure Skarmory and Steelix, who switch in on that for free. I on the other hand had a similar strategy in mind with Snorlax, but with Lovely Kiss to screw over Skarmory, at the least, and was backed up by Reflect on two other Pokemon to reduce damage from the likes of Tyranitar and what not.

That's not to say that a well-thought out offense is necessarily going to reduce the amount of turns spent in battle, but when you spend less time "stalling" and more time trying to find a way to break down walls, the game becomes more entertaining. As a parallel, you can look at the game of Chess.

Summary: GSC is not necessarily a "stall" metagame. It's harder to break down some things due to bulkier Pokemon and lack of stall-breaking moves and abilities (like Taunt, Arena Trap, Magnet Pull), but there are several methods of viable offense that those quick to judge have not explored, due to the want to counter everything under the sun (because that's more possible to do in this gen). Sometimes players do look to try and set up an offense, but do so in the wrong way (ie, trying to powerhouse their way to a win without considering potential counters). Even if offenses and strategies are well thought out, a game can still be drawn out for extra turns, but keeping a win condition in mind can make the process less rage-inducing.

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/FireRed/LeafGreen - aka the Advance Generation (Gen III)

Yes, I must make the distinction, as certain Pokemon weren't introduced onto the Gameboy Advance handhelds until FireRed and LeafGreen, and Pokemon weren't obtainable between Ruby/Sapphire and FR/LG without the help of Emerald. ._. Not to mention that Ruby/Sapphire make a metagame of its own, called "200," which is not what we're going to talk about here.

ADV is my gen of choice. It's got a more explosive offensive potential than GSC, due to new held items, moves, and abilities, but unlike the past gen it's a lot more viable to simply attack from a defensive position. Some of the counters to some of the most dangerous Pokemon can actually do some considerable damage due to the defensive limitations introduced by Effort Values (EVs), and hell, they can probably set up their own offense in the process. Where Suicune was once just a boring go-to for keeping Ground and Rock types at bay, it became an offensive threat through Calm Mind while still retaining its old job. Swampert's a crowd favorite for countering Tyranitar, and it has the ability to hit things for decent damage across the board. If you consider it so, Skarmory contributed more to offensive pressure when it gained access to Spikes. Sentiments aside from this being the first gen I played competitively, I've come to feel that this was a good balance of all things Pokemon that allowed for a wide variety of playstyles and where the metagame had evolved more over time than its preceding gens. There's really not a whole lot I want to say on this, as if there is a dislike for it from newer players (I've heard people call it a "stall" generation as well), I don't actually understand it.


Summary: Not necessarily a "balanced" gen, as I've implied, but has a good mix of offensive and defensive potential that allows for a variety of successful teams and strategies, all of which have changed in prevalence over time, and are probably still subject to change.



This is the part where you start to rip me a new one. I've never inquired as to the overall appeal of Gen IV and Gen V, but have inferred it through what I've seen and experienced...which isn't an awful lot. I've played enough to test several teams and enter a couple of tournaments in each gen, but I haven't become notably successful or attached to either one. I now introduce you to the sloppier part of this post:

Diamond/Pearl/Platinum (Gen IV)

***Skip Down if you don't care about why I initially disliked this gen***

When I heard a new generation was on the rise at the peak of competitive ADV play, I was a bit conflicted. I was just getting the hang of things and becoming a decent player, so it all felt a bit too soon for me. Not to mention we had already reached 386 Pokemon total. The thought of shoving 100 or so more into memory was a bit daunting. However, I was interested...for all of two seconds. News hit that a major change would be a physical/special split between moves and that was not an idea I was fond of.

For the unaware, the physical or special properties of an attacking move in Gens I - III were determined by type. Water, Grass, Fire, and Dragon type attacks were of the special variety, while types like Normal, Rock, Bug, and Ghost were physical. DPP changed all of that by giving moves their own physical or special property, regardless of type. (ie Fire Blast is special while Fire Punch is physical). I was highly against this idea, whining a silly complaint that the change was to appeal to "dumbass losers who didn't know how to properly deal with Skarmory + Blissey," and vowed to never play the new game due to the fact.

As a perspective to my naive thoughts at the time, take a look at Sneasel. It was a badly designed Pokemon when it was introduced in GSC. It was fast, but incredibly frail, and the moves it received STAB from came from a terrible Special Attack stat while its strong Attack stat only warranted use from a poor variety of moves (like Dynamicpunch and Return/Frustration. D:). This remained relatively unchanged during ADV, yet there were lesser players who would use it and get frustrated when their Ice Punch was doing absolutely nothing to anything that mattered, particularly (you guessed it!) Skarmory and Blissey. But with DPP and its new mechanics hitting the shelves around the same time as Super Smash Bros. Brawl, I had this notion that game devs were trying too much to make games that were well received by competitive communities more appealing and accessible to casual level players (how ironic that I play Brawl more than Melee, right?). There was nothing wrong with this, of course, but it didn't sit right with me that this once terrible Pokemon would be able to hit a special wall with a move that it once took minimal damage. So after a year or two of unwarranted hatred and re-introducing old gens to a Gen IV dominated community, I gave the game a shot every now and then.

******End Skip******

The first few tries of me failing I attributed to me not being familiar with how things work. As I watched and played a little more (I still don't have a full understanding of the metagame, btw), I saw the general flow of battle, and I can say that the gen is relatively solid, however much I still dislike/feel uncomfortable with it. The pace of the battles are similar to the pace of RBY battles, since making a defensive switch doesn't always involve a solid counter, but often rather a "check" or a combination of checks.

Because there's not much I can say that I like about the gen (except maybe the changes made to Scizor), I'll try and describe the things I dislike about it, the first of which is Stealth Rock. If an alternative set of Spikes were introduced that simply and exclusively hit Flying types or Pokemon with the Levitate ability (which are immune to regular Spikes), I'd probably be fine. Stealth Rock is a whole other monster. It takes one turn to set up, can remove up to half of certain Pokemon's health (more commonly a fourth), and the metagame seemingly revolves around setting it up and keeping it around. Literally, some Pokemon are set out as sacrifices to set it up from turn #1 and some Pokemon have movesets mean to counter those kinds of sacrifices and keep them from setting up (or rather ensure their death the moment they do choose to set up a Stealth Rock). Even calculations in Pokemon analyses factor in how many attacks it takes to KO an opposing Pokemon WITH Stealth Rock damage in mind.

For clarification, Stealth Rock is an entry hazard, where a Pokemon receives damage based on its resistance/weakness to Rock type moves. It takes 12.5% health from a Pokemon that's neutral to it, meaning Weavile takes 25% damage and Yanmega takes 50% damage JUST FROM SWITCHING IN. This is not completely a bad thing, since there are measures to get rid of Stealth Rock, as well as preventing them from being set up. What actually irks me is how much more dangerous some Pokemon would become without its exsistence (a sentiment that carries over into Gen 5). Gyarados and Dragonite gaining access to physical Waterfall and Outrage/Dragon Claw respectively become a bit more difficult to write off without the extra damage provided by SR, and as I mentioned before, some Pokemon analyses calculate KOs with Stealth Rock damage factored in, meaning without Stealth Rock, you may be taking an extra turn of damage trying to kill certain things off. Like I mentioned, if it were just like regular Spikes, where it takes 3 turns to set up fully, or even only it exclusively hit Flying types, this wouldn't be as much of a gripe for me, but won't someone please think of poor Regice? ;___;

Next is Choice Scarf. My opinion here doesn't hold very well, since I'm adamant that someone should not complain about unpredictability in a game where so many options are available, but competitive Pokemon is already a lot of guesswork in that sense. Choice Scarf adds an element to where not only do you have to guess what kind of move is going to be used against you (from Pokemon that are versatile like that), but now you have to guess if you're going to be outrun by the attacking Pokemon as well. If I know how dangerous Swords Dance Scizor can be, I'd certainly want waste no time in blasting it with my half-health Heatran. How unfortunate that this Scizor is of a Choice Scarfed variety and outran me to hit with Superpower for a KO. Once again, it's an unpredictability element, so there's little room to complain, but the offensive prowess of the game leaves little room for conservation if you're not running a stall team, and the surprise of a Choice Scarf, from my perspective, leads to loss in personnel more often than using a non-standard moveset (think Snorlax using Fire Blast to mess with Skarmory).

Summary: This gen is more solid than I initially gave it credit for, but occasionally the offense it allows seems mindless and the idea of hindering conservation (even RBY gives you some outlets and reasons to keep a Pokemon around, even when they're on their last leg) doesn't sit well with me.

Black/White (Gen V)

You know how a lot of people view today's media and their effect on kids? Like, the values they're being taught and what not? That's kind of how I view BW. Being taught patience and ingenuity with the resources I have in older gens, the fact that this gen's competitively play encourages hitting hard and fast more than anything (there's still stall and it still works) makes me cringe. It's another case of "I dislike this, though it's not necessarily bad," but in a sense that this is the kind of fan base that influences how certain games will be made. The kind of competitive community that derives from this is often in conflict amongst itself because of the mindless elements it includes. Forget the inherent luck factor and the players that complain about it. Explain why Dragon types got such a boost that 4Drag2Mag(neton/nezone) is a legitimate offensive strategy. Have you seen Volt Switch + U-Turn on the same team? It's not impossible to defend against, but shit if you don't take unnecessary damage if you don't predict correctly. Weather has never been such a dominating factor since it was introduced in GSC. What's a Terrakion, you ask? A high HP, high Attack, high Speed Rock/Fighting type (you know, the dominant attacking type in this gen) that gets STAB on Stone Edge (high crit ratio Rock-type attack) and whose main checks have to take a ton of damage to where they can only switch in 1-2 times, or who have to use Choice Scarf to outspeed/KO it (if it's not using a Scarf itself). Setting these things up has a mindless feel to it at a lower level, though higher levels of play include more thought and prediction.

Parallel: For anyone who's familiar with Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom, think of how some low/mid-level players can herp derp their way to victory with Wesker or X-Factor (or both), yet at high level play, one can appreciate the intricacies that underlie solid gameplay, turning it into smart/technical gameplay. That in mind, it doesn't take away the fact that both games have evident bullshit in them.

The only thing I can really appreciate about this gen is the variety. I'm a sucker for combining things to work as a unit, which is the only real reason I gave this a shot. But past that, the mindlessness of just attacking with your strongest moves or having to sacrifice a Pokemon to a strong move (because you can't cover everything, even less so than in RBY) and the community that plays it-

Oh, right those guys. I've seen a lot and done my share of whining after battle, but jeez, I think the newer generation of players take the cake. Not only do I occasionally see complaints about using "cheap" strategies (Really? Really?), but people get called out for using stall teams, people rage quit when you get ONE critical hit for a KO on their star Pokemon. At a certain point, it was less of me not deriving any enjoyment from the game and more of me not wanting to deal with these kinds of people. I mean, I've been called out for predicting correctly and getting a KO for it. What? Maybe I'll give it another go in the future to make a better opinion, but my impressions thus far are a detriment to that cause.

Summary: Clusterfuck of a gen where there are few restraints and results only become consistent at higher levels of play, and even then it's Pokemon, so luck factor can (and often does) ruin the experience for those involved. The community that plays it fervently at low/mid-levels are often childish and complain about the dumbest shit, moreso (I believe) than in past gens. My comrades can feel free to call me out on this.

So, if you enjoy Pokemon for what it is, more power to you. I think that's the best way to go, since the in-game experiences are definitely some of my treasured past times from older generations. The anime was enjoyable for the first few seasons and I only read one issue of that kick ass manga but it was...kick ass. But I've been trying to come to grips with the current competitive community, since that's where I get the most experience for my buck, and this is where I currently stand.

My Top 5 Favorite Anime List

I'm suppose to be blogging something more relevant, but it's not shaping up like I want it to just yet. So, instead, you get this. :D I'm going based off of stuff I've finished, so anything airing that I'm following/set aside for a moment has room to become my favorite, but yeah. Here you go, if you care:

#5 Katanagatari

At least, among my circle of friends, I feel this is an underrated/unnoticed gem, but it's a legitimately good series. It follows a martial artist, named Shichika, who leaves his life of isolation behind to travel with Togame, a female general/strategist from the shogunate, to collect twelve legendary blades in order to realize her ambitions.






Things I Liked About This Series:

• It's only 12 episodes, but each episode has a run time of about 45+ minutes. I feel that this keeps the story from becoming diluted and allows the audience to connect with the main characters more. Also, when shit goes down, we don't have to wait for the next two episodes for it to finish.
• Shichika's martial art, Kyoutoryuu, actually makes him a literal sword in this universe. While he is human, he cannot wield a weapon because he is considered an actual weapon. Found that interesting.
• The action was legit, but the build up to the fights is actually pretty mild and usually ends up being more about calculation (aka Togame planning out Shichika's tactics) rather than going all out. The contrast between that and the last few fights makes the ending SO much better.
• Nanami, Shichika's sister, is broken.
• The art is very colorful and vibrant. Aside from the unique clothing designs, many significant characters have differently shaped/color pupils or hair, and the depicted landscape of feudal Japan is drawn beautifully.

#4  Kara no Kyoukai

A series of movies from Type-Moon is already enough to get me hype on principle. These movies follow Shiki Ryougi and Mikiya Kokutou as they are surrounded by events of the supernatural and the occult. Shiki is a young woman with the rare power of the Eyes of Mystic Death Perception (aka, she can kill/break anything that exists by perceiving it's "lines of death" and cutting it) while Mikiya has a penchant for investigating and gathering information, using that to assist Shiki and their employer, Touko Aozaki.

I feel sometimes it was hard to follow, since the movie order is not parallel with the full story's chronological order, and because I don't have a Type-Moon textbook/encyclopedia close at hand to fully understand some of the confusing/not-fully-explained stuff. Still good stuff, though.

Things I Like About This Series:

• Shiki is quite possibly my favorite Type-Moon character and one of my favorite anime characters overall. She's so aloof and indifferent to the standards and opinions of others that it's interesting to see how she interacts with the world around her. She also wears a kimono everywhere.
• For a show that's mostly about magic, it minimize the amount of time actually using magic (aside from barriers/illusions/etc.), trading it for explanations of complex magic being dealt with. If not that, just universally-known magic (like fire or runes) is briefly used. Less action time for magic users means more action time for Shiki. ^___^

#3 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Edward and Alphonse Eric lived a happy life with their mother as children, even though their father left them years ago. They also show talent for alchemy- an almost limitless power to understand and change the things around them. So when their mother dies from illness, the two brothers decide to commit the highest taboo of alchemy: transmutating a human, namely their mother. The procedure ends in disaster, causing Edward to lose a leg, and soon after his arm while fixating his younger brother, who lost his entire body, to a suit of armor.

After some grief, recovery, and aspiration, Edward is set up with metal prostheses and the two brothers set out to find a way to recover their original bodies.

Things I Liked About The Series:

• It's an emotional roller coaster ride. As the Elric Brothers meet and acquaint with new people, they lose many in the process to a tragedy that is circulating in the background. They also have to deal with despair as each step they take towards their goal throws them a curve ball that continually puts it just out of reach.
• As 13 and 14-year-olds, they also have to struggle with the affairs and ideals of adults. In this they learn from the wisdom of adults, challenge them with their own ideals, and witness constant death as they interact within the military. Watching them grow up in this manner (as highly intelligent as they already are) is part of the FMA experience too.
• This dude, Edward, can clap his hands and make stuff out of stuff. Sure you gotta pass Chemistry 101 for this, but that shit is cool. The fact that he has an easier process than other alchemists (who have to draw complex circles on the spot or have it already drawn/engraved on an item on their person) is also kinda busted.
• Colonel Mustang is a beast. I lost my shit during that episode.
• SOOOO much shit is going on. You have the basic premise of the story, stuff that pops up to hinder the general direction of that premise, the stuff controlling the stuff that pops up, then the ultimate reason as to why that stuff is being controlled. I sometimes ended up forgetting that Ed and Al are just trying to get their bodies back instead of dealing with all the extra bullshit being thrown at them. Just the scale of the plot is insane.
• Since this follows the plot of the manga (unlike the previous anime rendition of FMA), it feels less thrown together. When things tied up in the previous FMA, I was unsatisfied with the conclusion. Then a movie came out to run off of the conclusion, and even THAT was unsatisfying. Brotherhood did quite the opposite. Since the plot was changed to run parallel with the (then) on-going manga, there was more elaboration on certain points and everything in the plot was modified to work off a much grander scale.
• I was always on the edge of my seat because I never knew what to expect.
• Being a bad ass isn't an exclusivity in this show.

#2 Hayate no Gotoku

 Yes, this is my #2 over FMA. Generally speaking, I enjoy (good) comedy over action.

Hayate Ayasaki is an unfortunate guy. His parents are sleazeballs that constantly waste and gamble money (including his), and while he's worked through all of his childhood to manage for himself, he can't keep a job for long due to child labor laws.

We meet Hayate at age 16, during the Christmas season, where he's working to earn money, as usual. Not only does he find out that his boss gave his pay to his parents, but they have apparently racked up a 150 million yen debt and have sold him to the Yakuza to pay it off. Hayate escapes from the pursuing gangsters, he runs into Nagi Sanzenin, a girl from a rich family. In desperation, he decides to hold the girl for ransom to pay off his parents debt. When the plan fails and he ends up saving Nagi, she pays off that debt and he begins to work as a butler at her estate as compensation.

What I Liked About This Series:

• The comedy is great. It constantly breaks the fourth wall and parodies/makes references to everything, from Gundam, Tsukihime, Gurren Lagann, Knight Rider, Haruhi, Pokemon....the list is insane.
• It has a harem element to it, but Hayate is COMPLETELY oblivious to the feelings of all the females. 
• The narrator joins in on the fun. Yes, that makes it more hilarious.
• Hayate exhibits superhuman qualities. That in itself gives potential to hilarious situations, like beating the Knight Rider's car in race.....on bike.

#1 Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

No.

If you don't already know why this show is awesome or haven't watched it yet, then there's a problem. The epicness of this anime can't be described in (my own) words. Just go watch it and know that I consider it the ideal- the bar line for what an action anime should be and one of the best (if not THE best) anime of all time, whatever my opinion may mean to you. The animation is surprisingly GREAT for a TV show, the wheels are just constantly in motion, just about every character has something unique that makes them particularly awesome, and the climax of the story hits like an orgasm- once the action starts, it just doesn't stop!

Great Escape!! You Survived. (feat. Skipping through games for the story?)

Just finished Catherine last night and viewed seven of the eight possible endings. Oh, man where do I start?

First, let me say that I'm not really all that into puzzle video games (I should fix that). My initial interest in Catherine was that it was created by the same guys who made the Persona series, and I just so happen to enjoy pole jocking those guys. That said, I started this up with a decently placed bar of expectations- Catherine jumped well over that bar.

So, this is a game split between two phases:

• The day time, where most of the cinematic parts of the actual story take place and where you have Vincent converse with certain NPCs (which has general effects on how the game ends).
• The night phase, where Vincent's trapped in a nightmare and you get to deal with puzzles of blocks to get him out of it.

Gameplay-wise...this was kind of like watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It's entertaining to go through, but you'd have a hard time convincing me to go through it again. To clarify, I bitched out mid-way and turned the game to Very Easy mode, and I still had some issues on some stages. There's no one way to climb the huge tower of blocks, but because you can't always see far enough up ahead (and because you're dealing with a time limit), it can be difficult to plan your path out, and it's even tougher than that if you're trying to go for gold trophies (without cheating -___-). Like, sometimes you want to move a block just so you can move up a level, but you couldn't see that it was holding up a stack of blocks on the back side of the tower. A whole side drops and now you may have potentially destroyed an optimal path for scaling higher.

Oh, and FUCK ice blocks.

But overall, I feel the events surrounding the puzzles made the experience all that enjoyable. I mean, when I think of puzzle games, I think of something like Tetris, where it's just map after map after map of blocks, or what have you, until you get tired. Catherine actually places a legitimate story and theme into the game, and your reward for completing the challenges is being able to enjoy that story. Just as Vincent's incentive for dealing with these bullshit nightmares is to live, the player's incentive for dealing with them as well is likely driven by the desire to complete the story. Don't try to invalidate that on the grounds of that being commonplace in gaming. We all know there are a lot of games where you most certainly aren't playing mainly for story progression.

Speaking of the story, I have to say I enjoyed it, and not necessarily because it's a good story. It's alright, in my opinion. The thrills come from a lot of "Oh, shit! Vince is in some deep shit!" moments and Catherine's (the character) deviant nature. I enjoyed it more for the fact that it has an overall feel to a visual novel, which is a favored genre of mine. Essentially, every choice you make when you're not dealing with blocks leads to NPCs living/dying and eventually which of the eight possible endings you'll get when you finish. Hell, even in certain cutscenes, Vincent's inner-dialogue changes based on how you've been making choices thus far. I feel like a game's story doesn't stale as fast when you have multiple ways to enjoy it.

On a related topic (the featured one in the title), a while ago I was introduced to this pic in my usual You Laugh You Lose thread:

If you're like me, you'd probably think this is a dumb idea. As expressed in the thread, the point of a game is to play the damn thing. There are specialized games, like visual novels and Heavy Rain, where your gameplay elements are kept to a minimum so that you can enjoy the story, but an idea like that in something like an RPG? Tradition aside, that's essentially saying "I want a 3-hour book for $40+." That's cost inefficient for you as well as profit inefficient for the companies making the game, should you decide to just turn the game back in for a full refund when you're done (But hey! Maybe it'll keep rental services like Blockbuster alive! :D).

As I played through Catherine, though, I started coming up with a compromised thought. See, when you beat each stage in Catherine, you get one of three trophies based on your performance- bronze, silver, and gold. If you receive a gold trophy on a stage (on Normal or Hard modes), you can skip that stage on your next playthrough. This is very helpful for viewing all 8 endings, since you need at least three runs to view them all.

So, I started thinking, "What if more games DID allow you to skip game elements as a reward for overcoming its challenges?" Essentially this is achieved in the New Game+'s where you get to keep all of your overpowered shit and blaze through fights like nothing, but what if you could skip even that for the sake of going through the story in a different manner?

For example, take any generic RPG. For forced fights, like bosses, let's say if you win with some complicated set up, the next time you play the game (assuming the story can be changed in certain fashions, based on what you do outside of battle), you can skip that fight. Or with dungeons, if you manage to locate hidden items or make it through within a certain time limit, bam- skip to the exit/boss fight with key items on hand on your New Game+. I think it's a decent compromise for the game's premise (aka PLAYING THE DAMN GAME) and for people who like going through multiple story paths or getting certain achievements, only obtainable through multiple playthroughs, without always having to stop for a big grind/upgrade session each time. I'm sure there are some overlooked concerns and flaws with this concept, but hey, it's an idea.

So, yeah. Catherine. Awesome game. Tough challenges with relatively satisfying rewards. Fun story with some thought-inducing concepts on love and choosing between chaotic and peaceful lifestyles. Shoutouts to my man, Shoji Meguro, for the awesome music.

May you rest in peace, little lamb.

Focus on Fighting

Recently, I've been trying to properly re-align my priorities, but even then my priorities have priorities. On the lower part of my overall list are fighting games, and with the time I'm trying to limit myself to spending on them, I'm now completely unsure where to put most of that time. My lack of funds won't get me to tournaments too frequently, but that's all good because I need a lot of time in training mode as it is anyway (properly read as: "I suck"). So, I guess this is just an outline of my internal conflict on the matter, based on each game I'm playing/interested in playing. These may just seem petty or dumb, but it's just what's on my mind as I'm thinking about it:

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

With all the "Blah, blah, blah, not a real fighting game" aside, this is the game I've played the most, competitively, and I never moved past average (if that). I've seen many of my local peers go from going even with me in matches, to completely outplaying me, even on my best days. Natural that I'd want to put in the time I've been neglecting for the longest, right?

Conflict:  I really don't know what direction I want to take here. I main Marth. Practicing things solo is one thing (that I'm sure I don't do properly, but that's yet another issue), but getting the experience I need is kind of tough. As I've mentioned, I don't get out to tournaments frequently anymore, and most of the people I'd play with are *kinda* out of the way (contributing factors are part me being lazy about traveling via MARTA and part the fact that it takes me almost 2+ hours to get to what I'll assume are the most frequented venues without a ride). Playing online is painful both for the fact that it's hard (for me at least) to play my character on Nintendo's lame wifi, as well as the fact that my Brawl disc now insists on not being read at frequent intervals.


Soul Calibur 5

I suppose I should have just mentioned this earlier, but I honestly don't feel like going back up to make it fit, but one large issue about this entire thing is that I only have Brawl, MBAACC, and UMvC3. SC5 is just fortunately in my friends' possessions, so I can occasionally spend some time on it. So a conflict I won't further mention that applies across the board is my not having certain games for myself.

SC is the only 3D fighter series I really even like, and I feel somewhat hype for the latest installment, because I'm actually able to play it at the beginning of the hype, for once. I still miss Cassandra, but whatever. :(

Conflict:  Access. Granted, I can chill at my friend's spot generally whenever, but all I can really do is fuck around with the characters. The spot I go to to play this game has ass internet (most times we can't even load Facebook in a timely manner), which usually tosses online out of the window, and I'm seemingly the only one of the group that intends to play competitively, so I feel there's not much I can learn on my own in this scenario, not to mention I get really bored, really quick due to that. I get the feeling that I have to have this sitting in front of me at home to get the most out of it, not to mention some good references (Point me in the right direction for this, if you would) on playing Pyrrha ω  and maybe Patrokolos α.


Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3

I wasn't around competitive gaming during most of the hype for the first two Marvels, but MvC2 seemed like a staple for all fighters to have in their repertoire when I did come in, so I figured I'd compensate by having MvC3 in mine. 

Conflict:  Besides constantly dropping combos, I'm not completely sure. I sometimes feel like I'm generally not comfortable with using characters outside of Zero, but overall I just don't know how to play the game. How do I approach with Amaterasu? How should I defend/counterattack when I'm being locked down? Why does it feel necessary to RUN INTO HULK'S s.H EVERY TIME? Stuff like that.


Blazblue: Continuum Shift 2

It's just fun enough to watch this game played on a competent level. It was also supposed to make up for my lack of presence during the Guilty Gear era when it came out as Calamity Trigger.

Conflict:  I play Noel, and only Noel, because I either don't like the concepts of some of the other characters or just don't feel comfortable with them. Why is that a conflict? Logically it makes no sense for me to care about whether I can play characters other than my main (unless it's just a game where you really need a counterpick sometimes), but part of the fun for me in a lax or casual environment is being able to switch between multiple characters. Not being able to do so in this game triggers a turn-off for me. Part of me still would like to improve in the game, though.


Melty Blood Actress Again: Current Code

Probably my top candidate for focusing on, just for the fact that I love Type-Moon and many of its characters.

Conflict:  Learning three iterations of the same character. Probably not needed, but it seems to be the standard and creates some flexibility, so why not? This is a conflict because I'm really slow on learning and applying things in fighting games. Hell, I'm still stuck repeating two BnBs for ONE iteration of ONE character whenever I start up the game. So, I sit here feeling like, "Waaaaah, I wanna try other characters!" and mentally retorting with, "No. Shut the fuck up and learn your main character (Shiki R.) first." Perhaps something like this will change if I were to neglect other games and put what attention and time I could on this one, but...yeah. I'd have to see. There's also a lingering fear of putting focus on a game where I couldn't use my machine to offer multiplayer unless the opposition uses a keyboard (one of my two USB ports are broken). Aka, I can't play versus my more casual-oriented gamer friends unless they happen to have themselves.


Arcana Heart 3

A number of cool looking characters with a multitude of different playstyles. And they're all female, which matters. ^___^

Conflict:  I HAVEN'T ACTUALLY TOUCHED THE DAMN GAME YET.


So, yeah. There's all of that nonsense, plus the want for an arcade stick to play these games with. Even though I'd have to get used to a stick (again), there are just so many things that feel relatively more comfortable to do it than on pad. I already know that's just a matter of money, so it's not a complaint or anything, but it's still an issue to be noted and eventually resolved (hopefully).

Opinions?

Sitting Down With Final Fantasy XIII

AKA, "Why the fuck am I trying to go in on a game whose sequel just came out?" Just shut up and read. ;__;

Around early 2010, a friend of mine picked up a copy of FFXIII. We heard the mixed reviews, we tried it, we hated it. Granted, I hadn't played through much of the story, but what was there already (in addition to being biased from my friends' feedback) made me cringe.

So, a few weeks ago, I decided to borrow a copy from another friend, partially because I'm in my "give things more of a chance" phase and partially because I got a PS3 for Christmas, but only own one game for it (IT'S MAHVEL BAYBEE). I intended to give my review/opinion/rant/whatever when I was done, and since I'm pretty much done (I only really need to finish off about 4 more missions, so I'm taking some time to farm/upgrade), here's what I've got so far:

Starting with the most obvious and complained about feature of the game (feel free to skip down a bit), it's extremely linear. Experienced Final Fantasy players know about the vast worlds that comprise most of the series' games through out the story. Worlds where at some point you could break off from the "main route" to check out an extra dungeon for items/abilities, and where dungeons branched off into multiple paths and puzzles at every turn, seeking to drain you of your strength like a horde of Zubats before you made it outside. If you REALLY haven't heard about this so far, 13's entry does away with all of this. At most points during the story, if you see a path branching off somewhere, it's just a quick detour to a dead end with an item.

"But Umby, what's so bad about this? Some people just want to enjoy the story, not sit in a cave for an hour trying  to figure out where the fuck the switch to the exit door is."

Oh, is that why Square Enix put most of the unmentioned parts of the story in a big log in your menu? Honestly, nothing's wrong with trading gameplay for story/cinematics (I mean, Heavy Rain is well-received and the only actions required for playing most visual novels is  pointing and clicking). The issue here belongs mainly to the game's branding. It's a FINAL FANTASY game. We've come to expect certain things from this title, so the linear progression is highly disappointing to a significant number of fans. Had it been called something like Lightning's Tsundere Quest or The Search for Hope's Genitals, it's been said by some people, but I'm sure no one would have had as much as a problem with that factor of the game.

"Alright, alright, whatever. You still get a big world to explore in Chapter 11."

Oh, goodness. Where do I start with this?

First off, the game is thirteen chapters long. I sat through a mediocre story dealing with characters I don't like (I dislike Snow's "hero complex," Vanille's English VA sucks, and Hope somehow managed to have three separate demeanors in his personality and was annoying regardless) while being prompted to save after every cutscene, ran through an endless funnel (to be occasionally stopped for yet another cutscene after taking about 5 steps), and I have to wait until near the end of the story to get to a world map? On top of that, said world (Gran Pulse) isn't even that special. It's huge, no doubt, especially when you have to go everywhere on foot (until you unlock wild Chocobos), but the only thing there to "explore" is the land itself. There are only two places that actually account for dungeons there, and they're on the main story path. Everywhere else is just a sectioned of area, made distinctive by what kind of enemies show up there.

Then there's the missions/quests...

I understand that sometimes, in various RPGs, you have to go out of your way to initiate a quest. I understand further that sometimes you have to go out of your way to meet the requirements for completing a quest. But the way 13 set this up makes it feel like a huge chore. For one thing, it's not always clear which quests you are/aren't able to accept. Ideally, you want to go in order from Mission #1 to Mission #2 and so on, but let's say, for example, you just cleaned up #6, are looking for #7, but find #10 in the vicinity instead, there's some confusion to be had when you find out you couldn't do #11 afterwards because you needed have #8 done which you can't do with out #7RAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

The whole system would have worked better if you had a central place or two to accept the missions from, so you weren't out looking for where you had to initiate it. This is especially important when you have to get a mission from way out in the middle of nowhere, then go all the way across the map to find your mark, only to realize you aren't strong enough to deal with it yet (Because the A-E ratings are really relative and don't really mean AS much as you'd like to think) and general you could keep better track of what the hell you were doing. The only things you CAN keep track of at will are your current mission, what missions you ran into (but declined), and what missions you've completed. To even figure out what missions are available to you next, you'd have to pay real close attention to your map, but you can't really prioritize the missions you WANT to do for prerequisites because you won't find out which mission it is until you get there. To get an idea of why this is so troublesome, I ended up completing a lot of mid-level missions before I found out I could have been riding on Chocobos by completing the low-level missions. -_________________-

Moving on from that, let's talk about the battle system. I must say, I'm somewhat glad I actually decided to sit down more with the game to get rid of the original bias I had towards this. On the first sit-down I went, "wtf?" from seeing an "Auto-Battle" option on the screen (Note: This is a time when I was particularly irritated at the gaming industry's general direction changes towards "ease-of-use") and was a little mad that battle efficiency required its use. After getting to a certain point in the story where battle roles were more varied and I was able to use three characters in a party, I gradually gained more respect for the system.

13 really forces its Paradigm Shift feature on to the player. There aren't any raw defense stats, just HP. The thing is, your enemies have soooooo much HP that, at first, you aren't just going to straight whack them to death. The general key is the Chain Gauge/Staggering.

*** SKIP IF YOU ALREADY KNOW THIS SHIT ***

If you haven't played the game, each enemy has a Chain Gauge with varying capacity. Hitting an enemy with an attack slowly raises the gauge, and any point of inaction causes it to drop. If it drops completely, you have to start filling it all over again. If you can keep hitting the enemy before that happens, it will continue to rise until it meets its capacity. When that happens, the enemy is in Stagger mode, where they take extra damage, and with the exception of some enemies, will flinch, preventing their actions, when you hit them. You can even continue to make the Chain Gauge rise further to increase the damage you are doing.

*** MOVING ALONG ***

This is important due to the way three specific roles work: Commando, Ravager, and Saboteur.

• Commandos, when attacking, cause the Chain Gauge to rise very little, but decrease the rate at which it depletes. They also do the most damage to a Staggered enemy.
• Ravagers, when attacking, cause the gauge to rise more quickly.
• Saboteurs, when attacking, can decrease the rate at which the gauge depletes.

So, if you're trying to bust up certain enemies (not exclusive to bosses or high profile monsters), your general pattern of offense is to attack with a Commando/Saboteur to slow down the gauge, attack with Ravagers (the more, the faster) to Stagger the enemy, then attack with Commandos to finish it off. Additionally, because you can't just walk in, guns blazing, without expecting to occasion get your shit wrecked, you've got your three defensive/supportive roles, Sentinel, Synergist, and Medic. With all six characters (in a three-person party) eventually gaining access to all six roles, you have a ton of paradigm combinations to factor into your strategy. Because all of that requires utilizing Paradigm Shift to change your party's roles (duh), already that's generally more active and requires more attention than the standard of bashing things with your strongest spells and skills- something to appreciate when other parts of the game are lacking in depth. Even going back to the topic of Auto-Battle, even though it supposedly chooses the "best" options each time, you will find that you'll need to manually make choices, usually if you're controlling a supportive role or if you want to use a character's special skill (Lightning's "Army of One," Sazh's "Cold Blood") and the game allows you to do that. It even offers a "Repeat" option so you don't have to run through the list to find what you chose again.

Another thing I pseudo-like is the way you can upgrade weapons/accessories. Instead of having armor to augment your non-existent (or rather unlisted? Correct me on that) defenses, you get accessories, which you can build up and make stronger. Same for your weapons, which means not even your initial equipment is necessarily useless once you find a new one in a treasure sphere (aka, don't immediately sell your shit). You can also get some nifty items from breaking down your maxed out equipment (aka...don't immediately sell your shit). The only issue is that the process is EXPENSIVE, and the game gives you very few ways to make enough bank to fund your upgrades. To explain, weapons have three tiers. You level the first tier up, us an item to change it into the second tier, level THAT up even mo...fuck it. It's just like Pokemon, except you use various items for experience instead of battles. You can pick up some of these items as loot or treasure, but that collective is nowhere near enough to max out something, so you end up buying your stuff. The more experience you need, the more money you need to spend on items, and you don't get the money as standard loot from fights. You have to sell items specifically made for the purpose of selling (like gold dust and perfume and all that other useless junk). Suffice to say, these types of items are generally rare drops/finds. The worst part is trying to get a tier 3 weapon, because the item you need to upgrade to one goes for 2 million gil in the shop and is a rare drop (I think 1% if you don't add on the effects of certain equipment?) from defeating GIANT TURTOISES. Keep in mind that you have six characters that you probably want to upgrade weapons for. It's not that I mind grinding, but by the time my characters have worked out enough to do all of this shit, one starts to ask "What am I..." wait, I'll let Zero finish this for me:

I believe everything  I've said already is the hard-hitting stuff. Anything else I'd have to say are minor, probably insignificant, yet annoying, though that's probably what helps to decrease general opinion of FFXIII as a game: All the little things pile up. Let me see if I can't list them out (thanks to Dogysamich for insight on some of this a while before I started my playthrough):

• There's battle menu lag. You know how you can't just tap X (or A) twice in a second to select the command you want? You have to wait for the fraction-of-a-second long animation to finish before you can press the button again.
• That first Paradigm Shift in a battle takes up AN EXCESSIVE AMOUNT OF TIME and YOU CAN STILL GET HIT DURING THE ANIMATION.
• The map on Gran Pulse is retarded. Having the minimap rotate while you're moving around is fine, but why does the MENU MAP rotate? If you were trying to direct someone to a specific place you couldn't say "it's in the northeast section of the map," because technically (technically) there's no way to distinguish the cardinal directions on the map.
• There's a faggot of a monster named Zirnitra. You have to fight it about 3 or 4 times in your missions.
• Why do certain things cost Technical Points (TP)? I understand Summoning, I can even understand Renew, if everyone gets it as a skill, regardless of role, but why do I have to waste such a valuable thing on a skill like Libra?
• Chocobo's can randomly sniff out treasure, but the way you find it is essentially by a game of "Hot/Cold."
• Did SE forget about Reflect magic?
• Why is it that no one gets Curaga in the Medic role? Only your summons use it on you.
• Pairing up certain types of equipment grants a character an extra passive skill. Stuff like randomly and instantly stagger an enemy on hit. That's fine, but why are some of those skills so insanely detrimental, like severely reducing your health?
• Boss fight -> Save? -> Cutscene -> Save? -> Character control. Save point next to you. Walk forward 5 steps -> Cutscene -> Save? - A slight exaggeration of what happens during the story, but...whyyyyyyyyyyy?
• I completed about 50+ of the 64 missions before I got to the Gigantuar mission. He still has his "10,000 Needles" skill. Only my Snow, at this point has even a few hundred HP over that amount. How do I get up to 10,000+ HP with my other characters? Oh, I have to actually finish the final boss fight to get an extra level in my Crystarium to GRIND FOR MORE CRYSTARIUM POINTS TO GET ENOUGH HP.
• Sometimes I wish I could direct parts of my ATB bar towards separate enemies. If I cast Aero twice in the same attack, it has to go to one enemy. I'd like to occasionally be able to choose one Aero to hit a certain enemy, then the other Aero to hit another. I mean, the way the system is now, setting that up might be wacky, but it's still something I'd like to have.
• "GODDAMNIT, HOPE! LIGHTNING IS THIS PARADIGM'S SENTINEL. YOU'RE THE MEDIC. WHY THE FUCK DO YOU KEEP DRIFTING TOWARD HER WHEN SHE'S GETTING BLASTED BY AOE ATTACKS?" *exaggeration*

.......Yeah...so it's not a COMPLETELY bad game. I'd register it as "barely okay," but so much of the little stuff could have been changed around and it might have been a significantly better experience. As of now, though, it feels like all the captivating graphics and beautiful music went to waste on a project that was less than mediocre, and on a big title name at that! Maybe I'll listen out for what people have to say about XIII-2 before giving it a shot, but with this precedence in tow, I'm not looking forward to anything but the soundtrack.

Hype for Another?

Among the million other things I should probably doing instead, I had to get this one out before my mind gained its composure.

First, a little foreshadowing. Watching Puella Magi Madoka Magica gave me a valuable lesson about watching anime. I'm already wise up on not judging a book on its cover, but this taught me that I shouldn't necessarily judge by the first few pages or chapters either. Madoka was a show that started too slow for me for something I was so hyped up for off the bat. Quite honestly, just the character designs were enough to intrigue me, but Tomoe using guns and Sakaya wielding a sword helped draw my attention. Even with the expectation of a cutesy action anime, I was ready to tag along in a world of magical rainbow blasts and sparkly transformation scenes.

What I got was something COMPLETELY different. I'm not mad at the fact, but there was so much idle time and a lot of magical stuff NOT happening in the first couple of episode, that I literally dropped the show after episode 2. Somewhere between eps 3-5, some friends had hyped it up on Facebook, and I decided to give it another shot. The following video portrays my feelings through out the rest of the ride:

Not gonna go into my impressions of the show because that's not what this blog is about. What it is about is how I've used this precedence to keep and open mind about trying things that initially turn me off. As such I've been playing through Funnel Fantasy XIII, started watching a playthrough of Final Fantasy X, and have recently been sitting tight for shit to go down in two shows from this anime season: Moretsu Pirates (shows has like 3 names, but Moretsu should take you to the right links in a Google search) and Another.....

Another's recent episode (ep 3, at the time of typing this) just delivered. I'm quite anxious to see how the pacing keeps up from this turning point, but FUCK.

For a rough synopsis, a guy who's been in the hospital for a while is going to middle school in a new town while his dad's away. He's put in a peculiar class with a peculiar history: 26 years ago, a popular girl in the class passed away, but all the students and faculty acted like she was still alive, with the principal going so far as to include her seat in the graduation ceremony. Meanwhile, back in present time, our protagonist acquaints himself with a mysterious, moody girl in his class that draws often and has a patch over her left eye. She doesn't seem to socialize and everyone in class gets super tense when our guy mentions the girl...

So already you know this is going to be a spooky story, and I'm glad my mind was open enough to hold on through three episodes for something to happen (yeah, I'm impatient at times. Sue me), because for the type of story this is and the way the sequence of events is panning out, everything has only the potential to get better. Maybe I'm just overly intrigued, since this is the first real horror anime I've watched, and I'm not going to spoil exactly why I'm so hyped about it right now (it's an overly simple reason), but either way I recommend trying it out.