She Returns!

I realized I never wrote anything on Valentine's Day before!  Well, let me tell you a story:

My date isn't going to be here until tomorrow.  And even when she gets here, I won't be taking her out...yet.  I'm still processing the first encounter and don't even get me started on the 2nd encounter.  At first, I hated her and all her friends.  But after a bit, I started warming up to her and some of her buddies.  I feel really good about this 3rd encounter, though I'm not prepared for it yet.  A lot of people don't seem to like her at all.  I'll give her that chance.  My friends say that it's not worth it.  "She's just an angry, pink-haired tsundere with no personality!"  Maybe it'll be okay.  I kinda like tsunderes!

So yeah, I pre-order Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII for PS3 and it arrives in the mail tomorrow!  I pre-ordered it to get the Yuna and Cloud Strife costumes and because I'm very excited about the game.  But I don't think I'll be able to play it quite just yet.  I FINALLY started playing Final Fantasy XIII and am about 10 hours in (still in the 'process' of finishing the game) and will work towards finishing it and FFXIII-2 (haven't even 'started' it yet) before I actually start Lightning Returns.  With the first 2 hours of Final Fantasy XIII, I immediately hated all the characters.  All the characters are based off emotions.  Lightning is always angry.  Snow bi-polar and changes his emotions on a whim.  Sazh can't finish his sentences as he's dubious on his stance in an argument.  Vanille is way too happy for her own good.  And Hope is the worst out of all of them with being portrayed as weak and helpless while blaming everyone else around him for everything.  With about 10 hours into the game, I'm starting to like Lightning a bit more as she shows some compassion towards the other characters.  I'm hoping I'll warm up to the rest of the cast as I get deeper into the story.  I tried out the demo of Lightning Returns and really liked the combat system as it's a lot more action-orientated and require a lot of cycling through skills.  Sadly, Lightning Returns has the lowest MetaScore out of the FFXIII series by critics and users alike.  Some people didn't like the story or characters, some didn't like the ending, others hated how it's action-orientated and not turn-based, while some just join in on the band-wagon and throw out vague comments such as "it's a boring game".  I really like the character design to Lightning but do think she has a shallow personality from what has been revealed in the first 10 hours of FFXIII so far.  I started liking her a bit more when she started showing some concern or understanding towards the other characters and that's when I realized her character archetype was that of a tsundere.  A Tsundere is a very common character archetype in animé where the character acts cold and/or indifferent to the other characters and ends up being more friendly near the end or in another method, they're resolute and show no compassion in the outside but hints on kindness and understanding in the inside.  I actually didn't know about this until I watched Lucky Star and it pointed out Kagami Hiiragi being a "Tsundere" so often.  That's when I realized I liked a lot of characters that are "tsundere".  I don't think it applies to actual girls in real life though.  So yeah, I'll be going through the FFXIII series this year and hopefully get around to Lightning Returns soon.


Getting back to the topic at hand: it's Valentine's Day and I don't have anything in particular planned.  I'm not disappointed and it's not surprising to have anything happen while I'm in the environment that I'm in.  This is why I've got to get a job outside of this city so I can meet more people!  I don't have anyone to celebrate Valentine's Day with, but that's okay.  Still not in the game industry to work towards my goal, that's not as okay.  I'm more concerned about my ability to get a job right now more than anything and it's something I'm working hard towards.  My portfolio is shaping up nicely and I'll have to do some more editing on my resumé.  In the meantime, I still want to work hard on producing more music and getting better at it.  It's been a pretty productive month so far with more projects lined up for me.  I also started making music for a game one of my friend's is developing for the android market.  In terms of gaming, I'm a bit worried.  I've already spent a lot of money these past 1.5 months into this year and I've already bought more games than I have completed.  I have to be careful about that since I'm more focused on completing specific games rather than large quantities of them.  And most of those specific games take a long time to complete.  Still, because of Valentine's Day, there were a bunch of sales I couldn't possibly ignore.  So I picked up 5 more games today.  Overall, I think the year started off alright so far for me.  I wish I was working out more consistently (been doing 2 times a week instead of 3) and getting work done a lot faster as well as completing games faster, but I realize that I have to pace myself if I want to get anything done.

Have a great and safe Valentine's Day, everyone!