Rant on Mega Man on Super Smash Bros. 3DS

I was supposed to talk about this in my post yesterday.  But I was so excited about everything else I totally forgot to talk about Megaman in Super Smash Bros. 3DS, even though I said I would!  But here I am, back again to yell and complain.
First, I want to point out how ecstatic I was to find out Mega Man was joining the roster for Super Smash Bros.  If you look at all the move sets and animation for Mega Man, you'll notice that it's a 1:1 representation of Mega Man from his original games:

Not to mention, all the sound effects are the ones from the original.  This incredible attention to detail and canon references is the perfect homage to the blue bomber.  Now to get onto the matter at hand: playing as Mega Man in Super Smash Bros. 3DS.

I'm pretty sure Mega Man will play exactly the same way in the full version considering the game's already out in Japan and the full game comes out here on Friday.  Still, everything I rant about here is based on what I've played from the demo.  I will come straight to the point and say "Mega Man isn't very good..."  People who have played the demo or the Japanese version of the full game all seem to agree that Mega Man isn't that strong compared to most of the characters or that he doesn't have a good moveset.  The main problem is that a lot of his moves puts him in danger more than being the danger.  He's his own worst enemy!  The other problem he has is kill potential.  This is a major problem I had with Sonic the Hedgehog in Brawl (and I'm afraid he might be the same in this one too) in that it was very difficult to finish off a player, let alone trying to damage them.  Let's go through all his move sets and take a closer look at his kit:

Note: A = Neutral Attack; B = Special Attack

Ground Attacks
A - Mega Buster (Safe): Mega Man can shoot up to 3 small projectiles that does 2%-2.5% Damage.  It's not the best, but it's not bad either.  You can recover out of the attack immediately and sneak in some extra damage between every other attack using this.  It's not very far ranged.

Forward A - Running Mega Buster (Safe): So like in the Mega Man games, he can run and shoot at the same time.  This can be useful leading into a grab or slide.

Up A - Mega Uppercut (Risky): So here we have our first problematic move.  It's the uppercut move that Mega Man uses from Marvel vs. Capcom.  It does a decent amount of damage (12%) and can KO around 80% or so.  The problem is using it.  It's an up-tilt move which means you might execute an up-smash or Up-air by accident if you don't do it right.  And if you do execute it right but miss, it takes forever for you to recover.  You can cancel out of it, you come back down really slow, and you're in the air long enough for the enemy to knock you out.  It's a good KO move if you can land it, but there are so many drawbacks on using it that it doesn't seem worth utilizing.

Down A - Slide Kick (Risky): I like this move because you can chain it into or from other attacks.  But you can't stop when you start and it's really easy for the enemy to just block grab you since you're locked down to that animation until you're finished.

Dash A - Top Spin (Risky): Much like the Slide kick, you're locked into animation when you start and can easily be block-grabbed.  Based on Top Man's weapon from Mega Man 3.

Ground Smash Attacks
Forward Smash - Charge Shot (Risky): The familiar charge shot from the series, it does decent damage (12-20%) and is one of the potential KO attacks.  But it has a delay before coming out, is slow, and takes a bit to recover from.  It's risky to use unless you put your opponent in a position where they can't avoid it.

Up Smash - Spark Shock (Risky): 15-20% is pretty good for this move, but it's not a KO move.  I don't understand why this isn't switched with the up-tilt attack.  That would make much more sense.  It's also a very risky move.  The skill lasts for a good few seconds and takes forever to recover from.  Based on Spark Man's weapon from Mega Man 3.

Down Smash - Flame Blast (Risky): This isn't far off from Up-Smash.  Rather than an attack right above him, it's two flaming pillars to both sides of Mega Man.  It does a good amount of damage (17-24%), but doesn't have KO potential and takes forever to execute and recover from.  Based on Flame Man's weapon from Mega Man 6.

Air Attacks
Neutral Air - Mega Buster (Safe): Mega Buster in the air.

Forward Air - Flame Sword (Risky): I like this skill.  It has good coverage, reach, and okay damage (5-9%).  It has a slight recovery time lag, but I'd much rather use this than any of the other moves.  Based on Sword Man's weapon from Mega Man 8.

Back Air - Slash Claw (Safe): This is, hands-down, the best move Mega Man has.  It's fast to execute and recover, it has KO potential, and it has decent range.  It doesn't have the strongest knock-back power for a KO, but it's the safest one.  Based on Slash Man's weapon from Mega Man 7

Up Air - Air Shooter (Safe): This is a hilarious move that can KO an opponent.  Rather than knocking them out of the screen at full speed, it carries them up and out of the screen slowly.  It's not too risky of a move, but it's very difficult to utilize effectively because of how slow it travels.  Based on Air Man's weapon from Mega Man 2.

Down Air - Hard Knuckle (Debatable): I really like this move, as well.  But there are problems with using it.  It's a downward spike that has very strong KO potential (I'm able to KO the CPU around 24%-32% using this) but is very difficult to land.  The D-air is most effective off stage.  It takes about .5-1 second for it to execute, so there's a timing issue.  Then there's also the fact that the 3DS doesn't have a C-stick, so if you press down too hard and execute it, you'll be locked in animation and fall at a very fast speed to your death.  Even if you don't fall off, there's a bit of a recovery time lag before you can do anything else.  It's the most satisfying move that Mega Man has in his arsenal, especially when you successfully land it.  Based on Hard Man's weapon from Mega Man 3.

Special Attacks
Grab - Super Arm (Safe): Thankfully, Mega Man's grab is really fast.  It can lead to some nice setups for damage and KO.  Based on Guts Man's weapon from Mega Man.

B - Metal Blade (Risky): Throws a circular metal blade that can be thrown in 8 different directions.  It takes a short delay to use, does very little damage, travels very slowly, has no knock-back, and can be grabbed by the opponent to be used against you.  What a terrible move.  Based on Metal Man's weapon from Mega Man 2.  (Looks like there are other weapons for custom later in the full version).

Side B - Crash Bomber (Risky): A slow traveling projectile that sticks to opponents and acts like the Gooey Bomb from Brawl.  It also has a short delay before execution and can be used against you since it can be transferred around by just touching.  Also a terrible move.  Based on Crash Man's weapon in Mega Man 2.

Up B - Rush Coil (Safe): Okay, this is pretty cool.  It's kind of like Sonic's Spring where Rush appears and lets Mega Man ascend higher and can be bounced on by anyone.  I heard Mega Man can get out of being stun-locked by combos using this, but I haven't confirmed that yet.  It's a really good recovery skill and can be used to chase enemies in higher areas for a KO or take out enemies below the stage platform and get back on safely.  Based off of the Rush Coil from Mega Man 3.

Down B - Leaf Shield (Risky): You bring up leaves that circle around you that does 1-2% damage for each one that makes contact.  Slow to bring up, slow to use, does very little damage, and slow recovery.  Another terrible skill.  Some have pointed out it might be good for setting up grabs, but using it would give a huge hint to the opponent on what you're going to do.  Based on Wood Man's weapon from Mega Man 2.

Final Smash - Rockman Special(Safe): You shoot a black hole and can execute it to stop and grow.  If anyone falls into it, the special will go off where 4 other Mega Mans from the series (X [X series], Exe [Battle Network], Volnutt [Legends], Geo Stelar [Star Force]) charge up their blasters along with Mega Man to blast the opponent.  Yes, it's a single-target Final smash, but it's pretty cool and a great treat for Mega Man fans.


So let's count: There are effectively (by default, not counting custom specials yet), 8 skills which are pretty safe to use, one that can be argued as being safe or risky, and 10 which are risky by nature due to the vulnerable state that the skill leaves Mega Man in when he executes them.  That's pretty bad when more than half of a character's kit is risky to use.  Not to mention that most of them don't reap the rewards that come with the danger of using them.  I think Mega Man is really fun, and so do many other fans who have played the demo; however, it seems apparent that he isn't as solid as we would hope for him to be as a fighter.  I'm still going to try to main him, but I doubt it'll turn out well considering what I went through with Sonic the Hedgehog in Brawl.  Hopefully, Mega Man's custom specials make him a bit more viable in a fight.  At this point, I don't really care.  I just want to play the game!  Three more days...

[SPOILER ALERT] Rant on Senran Kagura (Animé)

[Spoiler Alert]: I'm going to talk a lot about the story in Senran Kagura's Game and Animé so you might want to hold off on reading this if you haven't played or watched it yet and plan to.

I know I talked a lot about Senran Kagura Burst just two days ago, but I can't hold to myself what I feel and think about Senran Kagura the Animé.  I started watching it that night after I finished the post and then finish the rest of it yesterday.  To put it simply: I was disappointed with the Animé.  It wasn't bad and I had fun watching it, but it wasn't what I wanted and I didn't like some of the things they changed.  I know I shouldn't compare it to the game, but it used the same story line and changed some things around.  First, I'd like to go over things I liked about it.

Things I liked about the Animé:
-This song! A lot of the other opening and ending themes aren't bad, but are forgettable.  I instantly fell in love with this song the first time I heard it.  The allure of its melody, use of traditional Japanese instruments, bouncy beats, and uplifting guitar riffs just stood out to me.  It's such a catchy tune!

-All the original voice actors reprise their roles.  It's very sad to get different voice actors for the same characters because it doesn't feel the same.  So I was very happy to hear all the same voices again.

-Daidouji gets a bigger part in the story when she was only mentioned twice in the game.  They also give an explanation as to why she never graduated when she clearly qualifies to.

-People who were faceless in the game is shown in the animé: Murasame (Ikaruga's adoptive older brother), Hanzou (Asuka's Grandfather), Rin (Younger version), and Dougen (Hebijou Investor).

-Attention to certain details such as their catch phrases, special skills (hidden ninpo), and back story.

-Mirai is pretty darn cute in the animé.

-Grandfather Hanzou, Daidouji and Rin get to play a bigger part in the story

-The humor is pretty good and one of the aspects that made it kind of fun to watch.

-I don't care too much for fan-service, nor do I hate it.  I can say I like it, but I also can say it wasn't necessary had they focused more on the story and its characters.  There is a lot of nudity, but no nipples or private parts.  So it didn't go beyond ridiculous...depending on your tolerance.


Things I had problems with in the Animé:
Whew, here we go.

-Music is just as important to an animé sometimes as much as it is to videogames because it emphasizes a moment, an emotion, and event that triggers a memory or reaction from them.  Senran Kagura didn't really seem to have those aspects in their BGM and opening/ending themes (other than the one mentioned above) which is severely disappointing when the game had incredible BGM that could, very well, work in the animé.
The opening theme to Skirting Shadows is uplifting and intense while the opening to Crimson Girls is dark and powerful. Both are very memorable.

-Battle/combat choreography: A lot of the battles are short, one motion clips that have a lot of flashy effects and color, but no real impact and intensity in its movements. Look at the openings for the game right above and see how action-packed the fights look. I didn't really get that effect from the animé.

-Animation/certain details: I'm not talking about the graphics, but I thought they did an incredible job with the characters and environment.  But certain little things such as facial expressions, battle movement and effects, and certain gestures don't seem to really achieve a greater goal.  It's subtle details that can affect an entire moment and character.  The prime examples are my three favorite characters from Hebijo side: Yomi, Hikage, and Mirai.  Yomi has this facial expression in the game where the pupil of her eyes narrows and she has a very dire attitude.  But in the animé, they just give her a half closed evil eye that feels more presumptuous than serious.  With Hikage, they changed her story entirely!  In the game, she never smiles and it brought about this mysterious yet charming side of not knowing what she's about.  And then the player finds out there's a lot to her than what she lets on.  But in the animé, she's ALWAYS smiling and is described as being raised as a child soldier and to suppress her emotions.  Again, instead of being unpredictable and frightening like in the game, her character is confident and cocky in the animé.  For Mirai, I like how they made her very cute because she "is" very adorable.  But I'm very sad they made her the joke of the animé because she was a very strong character in the game who faced many difficulties through the story that made her confident.  She also has an arrogant attitude in the animé which makes me think they wanted to make Hebijo girls all the same.

-Let's get to characters, because I think that's the subject I'm most bothered with:
   *Asuka: I think they nailed it with Asuka's personality, but they didn't portray her growth in understanding the concept behind having "Sword and Shield" as well as it did in the game. It also didn't feel like Asuka really taught Homura anything about friendship. It was brought up, and then just kind of crossed her mind at the end.
   *Ikaruga: I am VERY bothered by the portrayal of her character because she is my absolute favorite.  In the game, she is a responsible, proud, and understanding older-sister to everyone in the team.  In the animé, she's cold and resolute.  It made her more of a loner.  I was very saddened by this.
   *Katsuragi: I feel like they didn't explain her backstory, like many other characters, with any impact.  That emotional tie you're supposed to feel for that character just isn't there.  Otherwise, they did a really good job on her personality.
   *Yagyuu: Yagyuu, unfortunately, didn't have as much personality and character build up in the game either, but she did play some important roles in the story.  Well, they just made her even more shallow and boring in the animé.  There was a rather serious point in the story for Yagyuu in the game that reflected the strong bond between the girls, but idea wasn't carried across very well in the animé.
   *Hibari: You know, she's actually one of the characters I thought they did some improvements with in the animé.  It's a good and bad thing.  In the game, she becomes more confident and is the one character to really bring together the two side to understand one another.  That also happens in the animé to a lesser degree, BUT she also has special abilities and talent in the animé that she didn't really have in the game.  Although her character played a stronger part in the story in the game, she seemed a lot more useful in the animé.
   *Homura: Much like Katsuragi, Homura's story wasn't explained very well so I felt it was hard to connect with her character in the animé.
   *Yomi: To be fair, I really despised her for a good half of the game.  A lot of the Hebijo characters during the Hanzo story was actually pretty shallow and reminded me of Pokémon.  Homura's all about "power, power, !@#$ friends", Hikage says "Wakannai yo" (I don't get it) a lot because she doesn't have "emotions", Mirai is "DON'T IGNORE ME!" girl, Haruka is "Puppets, puppets, Imma make you my doll!", while Yomi was one of the most unbearable ones who goes "Bean sprouts, BEAN SPROUTS, I love bean sprouts, Rich people?  RICH PEOPLE!  ALL RICH PEOPLE SHOULD DIE!"  But since they were going to use the same story and implemented stories from the Hebijo side as well, why not make her character the same?  Yomi's attitude and demeanor was almost that of insanity in the game.  But in the animé, her expressions and dialogue was more of casual anger and contempt.
   *Hikage: This was probably the most heart-breaking changes they made to a character as Hikage's story was probably my favorite on the Hebijo side.  I know I said there'd be spoilers, but I don't think I can explain the story with as much impact as the game.  Hikage's lack of emotion and never smiling gave her a unique personality.  Because she never shows emotion and conveys interest in understanding it, she was mysterious, unpredictable, funny and somewhat charming when she tries to laugh or show anger.  In the animé "she's a child soldier told to suppress her emotions".  With that, they made her always smiling in contempt and is described as "the perfect assassin".  So she was the typical "bad guy".  THEY TURNED HER INTO RAIDEN FROM MGS!  But it doesn't even have the same impact.  She was a stupid character in the animé with no real personality.
   *Mirai: Like Yomi, I thought Mirai was a dumb character during the Hanzou story always going about "DON'T IGNORE ME!"  But Mirai plays a big role in the Hebijo story with the player following the growth of her character.  She does get very strong and has an adorable charm about her.  Sadly, she's treated as a joke in the Animé.  Though, they did draw and animate her to be very cute though.
   *Haruka: In the game, she was incredibly creepy during Hanzou story.  But they also show an interesting, sensitive side to her in the Hebijo story.  She's also shown as being a lot more mature and experienced as a shinobi as she grew up.  In the animé, just her creepy side is mostly shown.  "Puppets, puppets, Imma make you my doll!"
   *Kiriya: Kiriya sensei is great.  In some aspects, they improved him even more in the animé with having a larger role in the story; however, they destroy the image of a wise and strong minded instructor by having him goof up multiple times throughout the show.  What kind of shinobi of his experience falls for so many tricks in a row?  He also had one of my favorite story arch in the game during the Hanzou story.  But they butchered it and changed it in the animé which lost its meaning and purpose for his character.
   *Rin/Suzune: The change to her character also really bugged me.  In the game, she's not revealed to be Rin until the very end of the game.  But as Suzune-sensei, she was strict yet unbelievably caring.  She loved her students and looked out for them to the very end.  Yet in the animé, she is introduced pretty early in the story and seeks to sell out her students to gain power on her own.  That totally ruined the image of her character.  She had this air about her in the game where she really was like a mother AND a strong loving sensei to the Hebijo girls.  But in the animé, she was weak in spirit and mind.  She only sought power and understood what it was at the end and does a random sacrifice that felt more wasted and dumb than noble.
   *Dougen/Orochi: They made Dougen better and worse at the same time.  In the game, he secretly disguises himself as a wealthy investor and is never shown.  He seemed like an ordinary man, but not showing how he looked like made him a mysterious character.  His haughty attitude and power he had behind his influence on Hebijo created an intimidating entity that the player never really sees.  What's dumb in the game is that he reveals to be a shinobi and reveals how they were using the Hebijo this entire time to resurrect Orochi and immediately gets killed by Homura right after that.  He must've been a terrible shinobi to get sliced up so quickly like that.  In the animé, he is shown a lot, has skillful powers as well as influential power in the story.  His hidden ninpo happens to be summoning Orochi.  All these aspects made him seem stronger in the animé, but the problem is that he wasn't as intimidating and mysterious which made him feel less threatening, ironically enough.  In the game, Orochi is an entity on its own that has been slumbering under the Hebijo school for centuries.  So Orochi seemed more threatening in the game.  He was also harder to beat, that's for sure.  In the animé, Orochi grabs Homura and Asuka, then gets cut by both of them and dies off.  Even though Dougen was killed so easily in the story of the game, he was a frightening man who had his plans set with no sense of fear or hesitation.  Despite all the power and ability Dougen seemed to have in the animé, he ends up being weak and cornered like a typical bad guy.

-The Ending: No crazy rooftop battle between Asuka and Homura where they use the Yin and Yang scrolls?  No flying around and doing crazy hidden ninpo?  No epic music playing in the background while they fight?!  Instead, they slice up Orochi in one attack and then have Rin jump off a rooftop with Dougen in hand as a "noble" sacrifice?  No true understanding between the Hanzou and Hebijo girls?!  No stronger sense of purpose beyond the ideas of death, between good and evil, and friendship?  Everything that led up to the ending of the game felt so right and satisfying.  I was so happy getting to the end of the story and experiencing the whole thing and how they connected to the ending.  But the ending to the animé felt so empty and dumb!  I was very disappointed.


Wrap-up:
To be very fair, it's really hard to fit the stories and characters and details within 12 episodes of an animé.  And I think that's the problem: they couldn't convey the same story within that duration with the same impact and meaning.  It was a fun watch, but it sadly feels shallow and empty compared to its original context.  Keep in mind that the majority of the game's story is told entirely of text and character conversations.  Even with that, it delivered a much more deeper and meaningful story with its characters and purpose than the animé did.  If anything, the animé was meant to exploit even more fan-service than the game, and it did indeed do that.  Those that haven't played the game might be able to enjoy the animé more than those who have.

It makes me worried about the other game-to-animé adaptations.  I've started watching Hyperdimension Neptunia The Animation, and the first two episodes is a lot of fun so far.  I think the story is different from the games, which is what Senran Kagura should've probably done.  I also have BlazBlue to watch after, and I've heard bad things about that one.  Well, I think that's enough ranting for one day.

Games are won and things get done!

This month has been tiring and busy with productivity.  A few weeks ago, one of our favorite pet Chickens died from choking on her medicine.  Waffle hasn't been well the past weeks prior to the incident with her excrement being white, her lack of appetite, and being less energetic than usual.  She hasn't laid an egg for over a year and she had problems as a baby chick.  So when she was being fed some medicine to help her expunge whatever was in her system, she choked on it and died.  It was sad to see and it hurt my father the most since he loved her the most out of all our pet chickens.  It was a tense and uncomfortable few weeks following that incident.  When Fuzzy died back when I was still in UC Irvine, my dad was upset back then too and bought 11 baby chicks soon after.  I was shocked and wasn't sure if this was okay.  My dad said this was the last time he'd raise anymore chickens.  But after losing Waffle, he ended up buying two more baby chicks a few days later.  Unfortunately, one of the baby chicks immediately had the same problems that Waffle did when she was brought home and my dad found out that it's a common disease that affects chickens.  Like with Waffle, my parents fed the new baby chick medicine and now it seems to be okay, but the disease doesn't really go away.  I knew losing Hattie or Waffle would be hard for the family, but it turned out a lot more dire in my father's situation than I thought it would.  I really hope he'll be okay.

I've been in overdrive mode again this month and feel really proud of myself for being able to stay focused.  I've started the Ultima Remix album I had planned since back in Jr. College and am making it a reality right now.  I met up with one of my cousins, who I haven't seen in a very long time, for lunch and we were talking about games when he mentioned "Ultima Exodus" for the NES.  I love that game as it was the game that made me very interested in RPGs.  I remember watching my father play the game and loved the music which has stuck with me even now.  Back in Jr. College, I had planned to make simple guitar arrangements for them and I had done so with the town theme.  But my friends were always busy and we ended up not playing that song together.  But when my cousin mentioned the game, I realized that I have the ability to remix and re-imagine the songs the way I want it now.  I felt inspired by the idea of revisiting an old project and making it a reality, and so I've pushed aside all other projects to create the remix album.  I've finished two of them so far and already have the others planned out.  I'm very excited to finishing this project.

I actually watched animé recently!  My friends have been telling me to watch Sword Art Online for over a year now, but I never found the time to watch it.  I started watching it during breakfast and lunch time and I got really into it.  I had finished my 2nd remix on Thursday, so Friday was pretty much free to me and so I spent the whole day watching episodes 11-25 and finished the series.  I loved it!  It had action, romance, drama, humor, and meaning and executed it really well.  That is, the first half of the series was like that.  The premise of the story is that in the future, virtual gaming gets to a point where a player's mind can dive into a system and play online games with 1:1 motion within the mind.  This is similar to old Animés like .Hack Sign.  The whole plot revolves around a Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) called "Sword Art Online" where thousands of players bought and played it on the first day of release.  The game was fun and exciting for the players until they find out that they couldn't log out and return to the real world.  All the players were pulled into the main beginning town and was then told that they were stuck in the game and weren't allowed to get out until they completed the game.  The big catch is that if they died in the game, the helmet on their heads in real-life that dives their mind into the game would fry their brain and kill them.  Furthermore, all the players custom looks were taken away and their true faces from the real world were suddenly shown in the game.  No one could hide or escape.  If someone in the real world tried to take of the helmet, it would instantly kill the one wearing it.  The rest of the animé focuses on the character, Kirito, in his quest to finish the game and free everyone from the death game that they were trapped in.  Throughout the story, he grows as a person, affects those around them, and faces difficulties he didn't think he'd have to go through in a game.  It wasn't a game anymore, it was a fight for survival.  And that's how the whole story gets interesting.  All the psychological and sociological inclinations of the players are shown and reflected to those found in real-life.  The interactions between the characters are deep and meaningful.  Aside from that, the graphics style is clean and modern.  But the animations is what really distinguishes itself from other animé shows where motion, effects, and especially character expressions are done so effectively.  I've been watching so many slice of life and comedy animé that it felt a bit weird to watch something so serious around the premise of a game.  Everything felt so grave and meaningful in the story, and that's where everything seems to fall apart in the 2nd half of the series.  I hope I'm not spoiling anything by saying that the remaining players alive escape from Sword Art Online, but some did not and was stuck in another game.  When Kirito returns to the real world, one of the players he became very close to did not come back to reality and was still in the virtual world.  He goes into that game to save that person, but everything was treated as a game there.  People killed wouldn't die in real-life.  There were a lot less characters for Kirito to interact with.  And the whole story was kind of a stereotypical videogame story of saving the princess at the end of the game sort of deal.  The main villain was also very stereotypical and incredibly disgusting.  I still had fun watching it, but the 2nd half didn't feel nearly as exciting, involving or meaningful as the first half.  And then there's the movie which recaps the entire series with little snippets of their life after the incident with one final adventure within the new game before the movie ends.  Supposedly there's a 3rd arch to the story that will release sometime later this year.  By the way, if you do watch Sword Art Online, be prepared to cry a few times.

With Sword Art Online finished, I am a bit lost of what to watch next.  I'm thinking of watching Senran Kagura next because I just finished the game 2 nights ago.  I definitely need to talk about that.

I've completed 7 games so far this month with most of them being First-Person Shooters and games I recently bought.  First-Person Shooters are generally short but they take up a lot of hard drive space.  I'm running really low and decided to play through all my installed Shooters and delete them after completing them.  With this month, I played through Transformers: War for Cybertron.  It's actually a 3rd-person shooter and had some interesting moments.  The game was a bit entertaining and managed to stay pretty consistent with itself.  It never got better or worse, but there were times I thought "wow, this is pretty cool!"  Being able to fly around, switch into car mode and drive really fast and shooting all sorts of weapons kept me interested throughout the playthrough.

Alien Rage, unfortunately was a different case.  I actually really liked the presentation of the game.  The graphics were beautiful, the guns and mechanics with aiming, shooting and moving around "felt" really good, and I liked the story that was told through the audio logs by a character that's never seen and only heard.  Sadly, the actual character was boring and the stereotypical, bald, space-marine.  The game was fun for the first few levels, then it starts suffering from a case of self-identity.  The game boasts itself for being a fast-paced, old-school shooter.  Unfortunately, rushing forward generally got you killed really fast.  In those cases, it seems like it wants the player to play more tactically and carefully.  The problem is that cover is sparse and don't provide very good protection.  Grenade launchers can easily kill the player in one hit, and it can splash beyond cover.  Having to hide behind cover and run back where you came to be in safety really broke the flow of the game and it didn't seem worth it.  A lot of bosses can kill you in one hit, so you have to be consistently moving; however, other enemies and sometimes the boss itself can also shoot bullets and rockets while you're running around and most of the cover are actually explosive and can kill the player in one hit as well.  In simple terms, the game couldn't find a good balance between fast-paced action and slower-paced tactics.  The game ended up irritating me more than entertaining me.  I didn't even get to try multiplayer side since not a single-player was online to play it.  I didn't want to believe it was a bad game, and I don't think it is perse.  I saw what the developers wanted to achieve in having the player experience, but don't feel that it was executed very well.

Painkiller: Hell & Damnation was pretty much a stripped down version of the first Painkiller with better graphics.  There were less levels and the last boss was long and tedious.  It was mildly entertaining, but mostly boring.

Rise of the Triad was a huge disappointment.  Much like Alien Rage, the game was advertised as being a fast-paced shooter with old-school charm.  It started off okay and quickly became disgusting gameplay.  Rather than shooting enemies, the game is filled with traps, poorly designed jump puzzles, and everything that hit you later on causes a really big cloudy explosion that fills the entire screen.  The whole game felt very gimmicky because of all these puzzles and traps and I got no satisfaction from it.  The last boss was so ridiculous that I had to use a cheat code to beat it (essentially, you're surround by lava that hurt you, tiny enemies that dive and blind you constantly, and a boss with an abnormal amount of health and damage that could kill you in two hits.  The whole game just felt so messy and unorganized.  I constantly felt lost as to where to go next as well because of how the levels were designed.  I was more than ready to delete the game after completing it.

I didn't play all bad games this month though.  I saw a game for about $3 that had just released called "One Way Heroics".  I was rather reluctant on getting it because the graphics looked underwhelming and it was considered a "Rogue-like", a word that is thrown around a little too often in the indie game industry nowadays that it seems to have lost its meaning.  Thankfully, the game turned out to be incredibly entertaining.  The game is indeed a rogue-like with randomly generated levels, item spawn, and events for every playthrough.  Unlike Elona, the game is significantly easier to learn how to play, takes a shorter amount of time to play, and still has enough content to keep it interesting.  Essentially, the player chooses a class to play and keeps walking to the right as the dark shroud from the left of the screen consumes everything it comes in contact with while fighting off enemies, grabbing better equipment and getting stronger to fight the demon lord to stop the dark shroud from going any further.  The game can still be unforgiving with enemies that can kill you in one hit, but there is the ability to save between towns and continue from there if killed.  I've already beaten the game about 5 times on easy mode and can still find something to play out of it.

Vanguard Princess finally reach Steam and it was super cheap upon release!  I've played this fighting game for the past 2 years or so already in Japanese and have been waiting for the English version to reach Steam for a while now ever since it was announced that it was put up on Steam Greenlight.  It was really nice to be able to read the text and understand the story, even though there isn't that much depth to it.  Sadly, my fight-stick doesn't work with the game and so I'm forced to use my Logitech Controller which seems to work perfectly fine with it.  I had a lot of fun playing the game and can definitely play it once in a while if I want to play a fighting game really quick.  The combo system is a little too technical which makes it hard to pull off long chains, but the simple combos are really short and are still very effective.  It's amazing that this game was made by one guy (essentially).

Lastly, I want to talk about Senran Kagura Burst.  I wouldn't have imagined that I'd enjoy the game so much and poured so many hours into it.  Senran Kagura Burst is a Beat-em-Up for the 3DS and was heavily advertised in Japan for having incredibly busty female ninjas that lose pieces of their clothing as they fight.  I don't mind fan-service as much anymore after being exposed to it so often in Animé and other Japanese games, but it always puts me on alert when it's used so heavily in a game making me think that the gameplay might not be enough to make the game worth it.  I had changed my mind about Senran Kagura Burst and found interest in it when I saw a footage of the combo system.  I couldn't keep away from it when it released here despite being digitally sold only (I despise getting games digitally on anything other than PC or tablets).  I also didn't like the fact that it was $30 for a digital copy.  Still, I was craving for a good beat-em-Up as I did enjoy Code of Princess but wasn't satisfied.  Well, I got a lot more than I had hoped from Senran Kagura Burst because all I wanted was a decent Beat-em-up I could play for about 7 hours.  I already have 39 hours on it and I still have a lot of extras to play!  For one thing, I didn't expect the game to have a real story or one that was decent, yet a large portion of the game was reading the story for each mission and who the characters were, who they fight, how they've grown, and what their world was about.  This, in turn, made me really like the characters.  Sure, there are a few I don't like as much, but grew rather fond of them.  The game looks so silly and upbeat that I didn't think it would venture into serious topics like death, good and evil, and the meaning of being a shinobi.  I really liked that it did that, because the characters felt more believable.  The whole world around them feels more real and has more meaning to who they are and why they fight when the story is taken a bit more seriously.  Graphics is a bit on and off.  I like the character designs a lot, though I don't think gigantic boobs is really necessary to make than any more attractive or likable.  Seriously, the interactions they have with each other, their back stories, and their personalities shine through and made me care about them more than I thought I would.  Their 3D models are really nice during conversations and special attacks.  But the ones made for walking around in the room is very weird.  Some of them have super thin arms and have odd walking animations when walking in the preparation room.  The graphics in combat is sadly not entirely in 3D in turn to prevent frame skipping or slow-down (a serious problem in Code of Princess), but Specials are still in 3D which looks pretty cool.  The graphics for combat aren't incredibly impressive, but the animation and how the game feels has a slick and flashy flow to the combat which I feel is very important to a beat-em-up.  The AI isn't incredibly smart, but the way they're set-up sometimes is quite devious which is where the game feels challenging.  Just button-mashing can get you so far until certain enemies that don't get fazed or attack from a range interrupts your attacks and deals massive damage.  The game is comparable to Dynasty Warriors in that a lot of enemies are presented to you.  Although a singular enemy may not be a threat, multiple enemies can cause problems if you don't position yourself and perform the correct attack chains to prevent getting flanked or stunned.  I also didn't expect the music to be so good either.  One of the first tracks that really caught my attention and made me appreciate the whole atmosphere it created within the game is Mirai's Theme "To the Worthless!"


The two composers that worked on the soundtrack for the game uses various styles and genres to really capture each characters personality and environment in a unique way.  Mirai is the tiny, gothic lolita character in the back and is described as small but hates being ignored and wants to be treated as a true shinobi.  This song comes across as being somewhat cute with the melodic piano, but also emphasizes how serious and strong Mirai is with a heavy techno beat and guitar riffs.   I loved the song, but hated the character during the first half of the game (Hanzo story side).  But when I played her story and learned more about her in the Hebijo side of the story, she became my favorite character for that side.  That's what the writing of the story did for these characters coupled with the amazing songs for each of them.  Another character I didn't really like but did later is Yomi who has an incredibly catchy theme:


And so I finished the game 2 nights ago with completing the main story.  I felt so satisfied with the game.  I can't say the story is epic or incredible, but the whole journey and learning about the characters and the progression of the story all felt very cohesive and felt so good when put togther: The story, the characters, the graphics, the music, the combat, and the challenge; they're all pretty good but not mind-blowing, yet they all work so well together that I felt it achieved in delivering the experience that the developer sought out to put out.  It's similar to the same satisfaction and happiness I felt when I finish Fortune Summoners, it's just not the same exact kind since Fortune Summoners did drive me up the wall quite a few times.  With all that said, I honestly hope that they bring over Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus and Senran Kagura 2 because Senran Kagura Burst has turned me into a fan of the series.  I'm just sad that the developers feel like the game won't sell unless it's overly sexy when everything else in the game has worked so well for a fun game.  Look at this ridiculous trailer for their new Cooking Rhythm spinoff they're making:

Like I said, I don't mind fan-service; however, fan-service to this degree makes it infinitely harder for publishers to bring it over.  That and it's not even necessary for a fun or even attractive game.  Trying to look past all this, I'd still get all these games if it has the same quality (if not better) in the level of story, characters, game mechanics, music, and graphics that I experienced in Senran Kagura Burst.  I certainly enjoyed it after playing games like Alien Rage, Painkiller, and Rise of the Triad where I felt irritation, boredom and disappointment.

Besides that, I'm still working on Final Fantasy XIII.  But that's a story for another time.

What a nutso November!

So I still have yet to finish my portfolio or get to working on my next music project, but I've acquired quite a bit of games this month.

Remember how I said I wanted to finish Dark Souls, Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2, and Persona 3FES/4 by the end of this year?  I don't see that happening anymore.  Dark Souls is taking longer than I expected to finish, but I am having fun with it.  Besides that, I put Pokémon Y on hold while I started up Kid Icarus: Uprising for the 3DS.  The game isn't Kid Icarus anymore in terms of gameplay, but it still holds the lore and music from the original.  The dialogues all have voice overs and are VERY cheesy, but the amount of humor they pour into it makes for a light-hearted experience.  The game's very challenging and really hard to play without the stand because the 3DS XL is pretty heavy compared to the original, so I get tired from playing it fairly quickly.  Still, it's a lot of fun with lots of action in it.  Among these two games that I'm playing, I also bought 10 games this month. 4 3DS games, 4 PS3 games, and 2 PC games.  Amazon Black Friday Sales have begun this week and Steam Autumn Sales start this Wednesday, so I might be picking up a few more.

Among the 10 that I bought, Senran Kagura Burst for the 3DS was one of them:


I was looking forward to this game when it was announced for a Western release.  When I saw the screen shots for the first game was first revealed, it didn't look that great of a game.  And the amount of fan-service also made me question whether the game itself was good or not.  But when the game finally released, I saw gameplay footages and was amazed by how fluid and fast the combat looked.  I got interested and learned more about it thinking that it wasn't a game that would see an English version.  Burst came out and then eventually XSEED games made an announcement saying that they were going to localize it with the condition that it will be digital only.  I was glad and sad at the same time.  I don't like to buy games digitally on any system other than PC for various reasons, but that was the catch here.  So I finally made my first digital purchase on my 3DS for Senran Kagura Burst and I'd say it was worth it.  The mechanics feel very similar to Dynasty Warriors and all attack link into one another very smoothly.  Sad to say, but in terms of gameplay I think Senran Kagura Burst is even better than Code of Princess, and I really liked Code of Princess.  I've been just blessed with so many awesome beat-em-ups this year and one that I haven't even played yet is Dragon's Crown which I order a few days ago.  I'm just waiting for that to come in the mail.

Besides my ever increasing backlog of games, I've been sucked back into Super Smash Bros. again.  I've been messing around on Smash 64, Melee, and Brawl and then ran into Project M on Youtube just last week.
  It's a mod of Super Smash Bros. Brawl to make it play more similar to Melee while changing the characters to be more balanced for a competitive level of play.  One of my favorite character changes is Sonic the Hedgehog and I've just fallen in love with playing him in Smash.  I've uploaded a video demo on my FB page if you want to check out what he's capable of now.  So that's been another lovely distraction for me this month.

Right now, I think I need to focus on finishing my portfolio because I think I want to take a break for December and just relax and enjoy Winter.  My sister is coming home to visit, friend's are coming back for the holidays, and I have a stack of games waiting for me to play them.  Then I go back to turbo working mode in January!

All the HYPE!

Man, what a crazy month it's been!  It's funny that I say that since I haven't really gone anywhere.  I decided to take a break from work in July and had planned that for June but kept busy in order to keep up with work.  I'm so sad July is coming to an end since it's been so much fun for me.  In the beginning of the month, a friend from LA drove all the way up to visit me and hang out for a few days.  I played a bunch of games on Wii, PS3, and PC with him and showed him around Old Sacramento.  It was a short visit, but it was definitely worth seeing him again since the last time I got to hang out with him was 3 years ago before I graduated from UCI.  Project X Zone for the 3DS finally came in the mail, but I didn't get the chance to play it until 2 nights ago since I've been so busy the past 3 weeks.  On July 11th, Summer Steam Sales and EVO began.  On that weekend, I watched all the matches on Twitch Stream while playing the Open Beta for Firefall.  There were a lot of exciting matches and this was the first year I watched all of EVO.
Source: Youtube Channel IGN

The match between Justin Wong vs. ChrisG on Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was the one I really wanted to see happen and it did when Justin was knocked into the loser's bracket.  When it was 0-2 and Justin was down to his last character, I just expected him to lose and thought it was a one-sided match with ChrisG doing some excellent plays.  But then Justin surprised everyone with a crazy comeback with Storm (which he has done before) and won 3 rounds in a row and climbed his way all the way out of loser's bracket and into the finals with 2-2 but lost in the end.  Still, it was such an exciting experience watching him beat all odds and get so far.  I enjoyed watching most of the finals, but for specific games, I was looking forward to watching Persona 4 Arena, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Street Fighter x Tekken since those are games I generally don't get to see tournament plays for.  I played Firefall and Path of Exile with a friend while watching the streams that weekend.

Then the week continued with more sales from Steam.  I had ordered a discounted Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate 3 for 3DS and went out to buy Dynasty Warriors 8 on the first day it came out (July 16th) for the PS3 in between the sales.  And right when the sale started, there was a Humble Weekly Bundle of Spiderweb Software's 15 games.  I also forgot to mention that during my friend's visit from LA, we went to GameStop and I finally got a copy of Baroque for the Wii for $5 and Odin Sphere went on sale for $5 on PSN this week so I picked that up last night.  Needless to say, I acquired a plethora of new games and have been excitedly playing through a good number of them in the past 2 weeks.

To go through some of the games I got on steam, I finally purchased Defiance for $13.59 and thought it was a good price for a game I can hop onto once in a while to mess around in and kill stuff.  I didn't feel very good about a $30 on it during the free weekend I tried it a few weeks ago, but $13.59 isn't too bad of a price.  I had a lot of trouble getting God Mode to work and then found a way to play it without it crashing by turning all the graphic settings to low.  It's definitely a multiplayer intensive game, but I can't connect to anyone's game which means no one plays it or match making sucks.  Still, it's a fun third-person shooter that cuts to the chase and let's me jump into the action.  The one game I'm really happy with is Rogue Legacy.  It's an Action-Platform Adventure game with RPG and Rogue-like elements such as level progression, equipment acquisition, randomly generated levels, and extreme difficulty.  It reminds me a lot of Castlevania post Symphony of the Night type games and I think that's where it really pulls me in.  I'm also really happy with The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, a sort of diablo-ish game with a unique skill tree and ability mechanic.  Along with me buying a bunch of games during the sale, a lot of my friends have been buying games too and I've been able to play a bunch of games with them because of it.

And the month isn't over just yet.  One of my friends is treating me to Videogames Live tomorrow and it will be the first time I'm seeing it in concert.  There's still so many games I want to play and get through.  My plan for "relaxation" originally was to beat as many games as possible with one of them being Starcraft 2.  Well, that didn't happen as I haven't even touched it yet.  I just ended up buying a bunch of games and playing whatever I felt like.  Surprisingly, I jumped up from 53 completed games to 70 since the last time I posted last month.  What makes me sad about July ending soon is what I have to get back into for the next month: back to arranging my portfolio, searching for job openings and submitting resumés and cover letters, possibly going to court for jury duty (most likely, ugh), and getting work done.  Hopefully I was able to relax enough this past month to actually help me keep focused for the next month.

Let the Games begin~

So I'm back on track on practicing music again.  I've been doing practice sessions, experimenting with recording, and playing piano/guitar a bit more regularly.  Despite all the efforts I'm putting in, I feel that I should've done more this year.  I made good progress with completing games, and I learn a lot for sure; however, I've also accumulated a lot more games and possibly have a larger back-log than before.  I also didn't draw anything other than the Team Fortress 2 picture at the beginning of the year.  I think I need to go back into drawing comics to get myself hyped up about drawing again.  I never got around to making my online profile, but I think I have the materials I want to put up now through the work I did for Camera Obscura.  In any case, I'm putting a lot of work behind me these next two weeks as I relax and enjoy the games I've bought and will be buying as Steam Winter Sales has started today!

This past month, I made progress on a lot of PC games.  I finally got around to playing Shank and surprisingly enjoyed it a lot.  It's a game that you'd have to play to know what it's like as the videos don't really convey the controls and feel of the game the way it does when playing it.  I finally beat Resident Evil Revelations a few nights ago on my 3DS. Source: Youtube Channel IGNentertainment

It seems IGN didn't really like the story.  I actually really enjoyed it.  The game still holds on to more of its action-orientated combat system of the newer Resident Evil games, but it also feels closer to the originals where they're more scary and put tension on the player.  After completing it, I continued playing Raid mode and really liked how I was able to mow through enemies, find stronger weapons, and level up like in an RPG.  But right now, I practically completed all my 3DS games and crave for a new game.  I'm thinking of getting Code of Princess or Paper Mario Sticker Star, but not sure if I should at the moment as I'm going to be spending quite a bit on Steam Winter Sale games.

This past week, I've been feeling some odd pain in my lower left abdomen.  Two nights ago, it got really bad and it got me worried.  I'm not sure if it's a muscle spasm or if I have a lot of air trapped or what.  I'm feeling a lot better today than earlier this week, but I still feel a bit off which worries me.  Hopefully it's nothing serious and nothing I have to worry about.

In any case, I'm off to finish the remaining work I have and start enjoying my binge on gaming for the next two weeks.  Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!

Working hard, playing freaking harder!

This past month has been pretty great.  For starters, I bought a new laptop that was even cheaper than my last laptop (around the same price actually) but has the power to turn up the settings to max on every game I have and still run pretty smoothly.  I don't think anyone can really understand what a huge deal this was for me playing PC games other than those who have had a similar experience.  I wanted to get through more of my PC games, but there were too many distractions.  First, there was the release of Guild Wars 2 which turned out to be incredibly fun.


Sadly, my friend that got me into Guild Wars 2 got bored of it really quick.  Because of that, we started playing Diablo 3 again because of the addition of Paragon levels.  And then Borderlands 2 came out this past Tuesday which attracted quite a few of my friends and so we've been playing that the past week.  Then last Tuesday, I bought a Nintendo 3DS XL.  On that same day, I ordered a bunch of items on Amazon as the new law states that it requires the online retailer to start charging customers sales tax which took effect last Saturday.  I had bought 5 PS3 games, 2 Wii Games, 4 3DS games, a new mouse (Razer Deathadder), a new headset that can be used on PC and PS3, and a HDMI cable to connect my previous laptop to my big-screen TV.  Most of my items came in just this morning and I'm using the new mouse right now! (My logitech mouse has sadly started giving out in movement and clicking.  Diablo 2 & 3 probably ruined it).  There's another problem to this case: work.

So two of the projects I'm working on are getting done rather quickly now, and both teams suddenly want things completed now.  This has put me in a strain against time these past two weeks.  I'm going to have to work this weekend as well to ensure I get things done.  I'm happy to be working on music again.  It feels like it's been a while since I've given much attention to music when I've been working on SFX for so long.  I said I would draw more this year, but so far, I've got one piece of work done.  That is freaking sad.

I wanted to get back into watching animé and decided to go back to Crunchyroll to finish up Hokuto no Ken only to find out that it's not there anymore.  Why Crunchyroll?  Why do you keep putting things up I like and then taking them down?  Well, I know the answer to that (licensing and contracts with publishers), but it still makes me sad that I didn't finish the series.  On the bright side, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya season 2 is available on CR.  I was warned by a lot of friends that it was a terrible show for season 2 as 8 of the episodes were repeated.  I took heed to that warning and still watched it anyways.  It was sorta painful watching the same scenario unravel 8 times, but I think it made the last episode for that little arc worth it.  It's not something I'd want to watch again anytime soon.  I still have about 3 more episodes of the season left, so I'm hoping there's still something I'll enjoy about it in the end.

It's really hard to find Videogame music now.  Games sometimes do have soundtracks for sale, but they'll be overseas, sold for an insane amount online, or very limited in special collections.  After a bit of hunting, I was able to find a few soundtracks.  There was one I just couldn't find at all though.  I had bought Centipede: Infestation for the Nintendo 3DS and completed the game with no interest in playing the game again.  The game mostly boring with a few interesting boss battles (it's an arena top-down shooter), but what really got me playing the game till the end was the music.  The composer is Jake Kaufman who I've took notice to after his work on Contra 4.  The music in the game has a strong influence of Electronic, Drum 'n Bass, and Dubstep that made it unique.  What I eventually did was hook up my 3DS to my laptop and recorded all the song from the "Jukebox" selection of the game.  I think the true prize of Videogame music this past month was purchasing the Humble Indie Bundle 6 this week.  I had 3 of the games listed already, but I really wanted a game called "Dustforce" after watching some gameplay of it from launch and from hearing about from my friend.  The bundle included the soundtracks to all the games.  I played Dustforce the night I bought it and really liked the game.  The controls were really tricky in the beginning (well, they still are), but the game flows really well when you know what you're doing.  What I didn't expect was how amazing the music was going to be.  I've been listening to the soundtrack all week.


I just can't stop listening to it.  Not only does it supplement the gameplay, but it's so chill and makes you feel so good.

I'm going to try my very best to hold back on any other game purchases (other than crazy steam deals) until I can go through some of my previously bought games.  I feel like I'm going to be playing some of them for a very long time.  I dread the thought of having to work right now and the rest of the month, but I'll enjoy each night that I find time to play some games. (Literally over 100+ games waiting to be played).