Here Comes Justice!!!

I finally beat Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney for the Nintendo DS!  I failed to go to fall asleep early because of how I destroyed my sleep pattern this past weekend.  I woke up with only 6 hours of sleep today in hopes of falling asleep a lot easier tonight in hopes of getting more studying done for my last final exam on Friday; however, I feel sorta dizzy because of the lack of sleep.  Anyways, I want to keep this short as I'm going to go back into studying very soon.

[Apollo Justice - Nintendo DS]

Story: The build up of the story was excellent and very well constructed with main chapters, involving characters, twists that relate to both past and present, and had an incredible concept near the end of the game for players to "find out the truth" behind a certain "character".  The only thing I would have against the story is how it didn't have a huge finale with a gratifying ending that the previous three Ace Attorney/Gyakuten Saiban installments had.  Nonetheless, the story followed through and gave the player an experience through several characters' points of view.  9/10

Graphics: You can tell the difference between this one and the previous three installments, and at one point of the game, it lets you "experience that".  The animations were just as quirky, witty, and humorous as the others, but the rough edges were taken out (not as pixelated as before).  The beginning of each chapter has a cinematic  like opening with moving animations rather than still shots; however, there were many parts of the game where a still shot or additional moving animation would have benefit the scene, but was left empty.  Again with inventive character designs and a crazy animation of a "particular character" at the end of the game.  9/10

Audio: Sound Effects are more or less the same as its predecessors, but it's not a bad thing.  New recordings of the characters saying their usual: "Hold it!" or "Objection!" reflect the characters' personalities rather well.  The music is incredible to no surprise.  I have always liked the music composed for the Ace Attorney/Gyakuten Saiban series for its memorable melodies and upbeat nature.  The best thing ever was to hear some tracks back from the very first Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game, you'll see what I mean if you play it.  9/10

Gameplay: I have to confess right now, the game was much more easier to go through than the Phoenix Wright series.  This was possibly done for a more general audience, which is fine.  But those who were looking for a challenge in puzzle solving and detective work will get something easier than what's expected from the series.  Especially near the end, everything seemed to have an obvious interaction which didn't require as much thinking.  There were a lot of new implementations of puzzle solving that was added and possibly experimented with the very first Phoenix Wright in the extra chapter.  One other thing that crossed my mind was that I realized I miss seeing a lot of familiar characters back in the game.  Perhaps I'll see them in Miles Edgeworth's game?  8/10

Overall: The game was noobed up a lot, which made it easier to go through and a lot less aggravating I suppose.  I still enjoyed it and had a great experience going through the story.  I really hope Capcom continues to make more Ace Attorney/Gyakuten Saiban games as it is one of the best series I've played in the longest time.  I can see why some people want to be Attorneys because of this game.  9/10

For those of you unfamiliar to the series, go pick it up if you can find it:

1) Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney

2) Phoenix Wright Justice for All

3) Phoenix Wright Trials and Tribulations

4) Apollo Justice Ace Attorney

5) Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations

School, Life, and Videogames~

Hey everyone, us UC students just finished our 5th week of Fall Quarter and I, with many others, are exhausted already and wants the quarter to end.  I do feel as if the quarter is going someone quickly, but it's also very stressful as I haven't been able to enjoy a weekend of this quarter other than the one on week 1.  I recieved my mid-terms back this week and ended up with a "B" and a "C-".  Anyone who knows me well enough is aware of how I do not like getting anything lower than a "B".  It's like the danger zone for me and I never feel safe in my academics standings whenever that happens.  Those who say "you could just take the class again next quarter because you'll know everything" make me think "why in the world would I want to take a class over again when I hated it so much the first time around?"  Aside from those 2 mid-terms, I'm not liking one of my other classes because we keep recieving so many assignments.  I do (somewhat) like my Computer Game Development class.  My group is working on a 3rd-person 3d Action-Platformer using the Unreal Tournament 2004 Engine influenced by the game "Mirror's Edge."  I rather not get into detail of why I'm getting frustrated with the class, but I do like the fact that I'm working with something related to my future career.

Speaking of Game Development, I took up 6 game projects and now put myself in a very busy schedule.  I'm on Sound/Music for an RPG, Side-Scroll Shooter, 3D Action-Platformer, and 2D Action Horror Game.  Then I have 2 independent games I'm working on.  One game I'm making is a follow up to something I created for class and the other is for a professor I'm working with in my Game Culture Concentration.  Yup yup, very busy and wish I had more time away from the boring classes I have to go through.

I feel very videogame deprived since I haven't been playing all that much lately and because of all the good games suddenly coming out and tempting me.  2 Games for sure I'm buying is Phantasy Star Zero for DS and Castle of Shikigami 3 for Wii.

I'm super excited for Phantasy Star Zero since I enjoy the Phantasy Star series, the amount of weapons and story they're implementing into this game, and the ability to play over the internet cooperatively with people around the world!!!  Castle of Shikigami 3 is actually getting somewhat old (about a year or 2) but I've been getting back into shooters after playing Touhou and Valkyrie Sky as well as re-watching the video Mushihimesama-Futari.  It's also because CoS3 has 2 player co-op and I wanted something to play with my sister and friend over this winter break.

The graphics are nice, the game is challenging, but I hope I can at the very least change the voices back to Japanese (I played the Japanese demo on PC).

It looks impossible, but I think it'd be fun to try it out.

Free Online game with 4-player co-op and RPG elements.  Check on Right Panel.

Putting Phantasy Star Zero ($40) with Castle of Shikigami ($30) would cost me up to $70 plus tax.  I'm not even working in a real job right now, so using money really puts a hole in my wallet.  This makes it hard for me when I look at the other games out there.  Left 4 Dead 2 is coming out very soon:

Then this week, I got to try out DJ Hero (on its launch day no less) and I gotta say it's pretty fun.  I also love the stuff Daft Punk does:

Today, I went back to try out Tekken 6 since I forgot to on tuesday when I was playing DJ Hero:

This guy makes him look like nothing, but I got to the boss today.  It wasn't even fair..... One game in particular that really caught my attention though was Borderlands.  It's an Action sort of FPS RPG that can be played online with 3 other people for a 4 player co-op.

It's $60 for Console and $50 for PC, and I'm having a really hard time deciding whether I should get this game or not.  I'm leaning a lot more towards waiting for it to become cheaper before I actually buy it, but it's an RPG I can play with my FPS friends!!!  Yeaaaaah, lot's of good games out.  For those of you that play DotA, "League of Legends goes free-to-play".  No seriously, check their website.  It's created by those who were involved with making DotA, so the designs of the game is sure to be familiar and entertaining to those who've played DotA before.  Not sure when I'll get around to trying it since I have so much work...Another game to look out for if you're a DotA fan is "Heroes of Newerth."  The game "Demigod", that was also inspired by "DotA", was/is fun, but didn't have as many characters which was something that disappointed me a little.  But the game mechanics were a lot easier to pick up and play with others.

Moving away from Videogames, I got a chance to watch the first episode of the anime "K-On" and loved it.  I like the way Kyoto Animation animates and draws their characters as it's easy on the eyes and enjoyable to follow.  The stories that they transition from the manga (as it is a 4-Koma style Manga) are true to the story with more details that make it its own (like they did with Lucky Star).  And I love music, so a story about 4 girls getting together and playing music really interested me.  There's a Bassist, guitarist, drummer, and keyboard player (and I play all 4, yay!) all have a distinctive personality and charm about them that really relates to the viewers or makes them a bit more attatched.

Yeah, that's Mio (mmm, I wouldn't mind having that figurine, but it's $88...- -;).  She's my favorite character so far which surprised me since I play the Bass the least (I don't have one, I play my friend's).  I liked the part in the first episode where Ritsu kicked Mio in the leg, made me sorry for Mio, but still laughed.  I didn't know it before, but appearently EVERYONE loves Mio as I read stuff on forums and blogs.  I don't blame them after seeing the amazing ending credits theme song "Don't Say Lazy" at the end of the episode.

Mmmm, sexy right? XD  Yeah, this anime is fairly new, but I think they already brought it over with english dubs to the states already.  It's voiced by Christine Vee.  No offense at all to her, but I don't like the english dubs of any of the Kyoto Animation animes, they sound so weird and out of character.  I think what really urked me was the english version of "God Knows..." from Suzumiya Haruhi  no Yuutsu.  If you've watched the original Japanese version, avoid listening to the english version.  On the other hand, I think Christine Vee did a decent job on the english version of "Don't Say Lazy".  Still, I perfer the Japanese version more.

Okay, time to cook dinner and go to Kendo and hopefully play some videogames tonight before I work like crazy tomorrow!!! XD

Summer Vacation

I guess I missed making a post during June.  The last month of school took a real toll on me and I was feeling sick, weak, tired, but still had to take care of so many things before leaving school.  I was emotionless on the last week of school and tried to focus on getting things done.  Especially with studying for my last final "History of Contemporary Art," I was dealing with 3-5 other things outside of class that I don't even want to even talk about anymore.  I ended up getting a C in the class and was very upset (I do not deserve a C after all the time I sacrificed just for that class).  Inno, I hated school again because of all the things that happened in the Spring Quarter.  I did enjoy being around friends and being able to participate in so many club activities, but it was incredibly difficult to balance with all the work I put myself into.

Anyways, when I got back home, I main cleaned up my room a bit and tried to recover from not resting and eating well.  I've been getting quite a bit of sleep every night and eat tons of food everyday since I got back home, but it worries me since I have trouble falling asleep at night and not exercising enough.  I've been trying to find a balance in my Summer break to work as well as enjoying my freedom.  I end up each day doing minimal work and then doing misc. activities at night before going to sleep.  One of them being "reading!"  Yes, READING!  ME, READING!  It's really amazing that I find myself enjoying a book before going to sleep since I've never really done it before (I've read gaming magazines before going to sleep if that counts).  Other than that, I've been playing videogames here and there considering that I bought 30 games from Christmas time up until now.  I even said "I have enough games that I don't want to buy anymore until Phantasy Star Zero comes out."  My friend Danny was total shock that I even said such words, and it's not because it affected him but rather a real eye-opener.  So I corrected myself and said "...for now, I have enough, I'll want more later..."  Seriously, videogames are like books to me, they take a year or five before a finish it, haha.  I got to hang out with Danny, Vanna and Ken the past few weekends which made me very happy.  I've really missed seeing familiar faces ever since I got back.  I realized how grown up and busy everyone has gotten, even those that are younger than me.

Some of the work I said I wanted to balance out during the break relates to school (for once).  This summer, I had planned to work a lot with music, art and videogames mainly.  I asked to do independent studies under my Game Studies and Game Design Professor by creating a mod or original game out of a game editor he had built with a grad student from UC Irvine.  I'm also continuing on working for my Videogame Development Club by Mixing and arranging more music for the RPG we started a year ago.  Other than that, I've planned out some music arrangements, videos, artworks, and videogames I would work on and hopefully finish by the end of this summer as part of building my portfolio (which is pretty empty and sad right now, I've met some very talented artist throughout the year).

In the future, I'll share some of my work and also write some reviews/recommendations of games I've been playing since I get the chance to play (FINALLY!  Soooo happy~).  I've been playing mainly my DS, PSP, PS3, and PS2.  I've been meaning to play some more Wii and PC, but I've been doing so many things each day that I don't get to play them.  I've finally started exercising again and practicing Kendo.  I've been practicing piano and guitar as well, though I should find the time to practice violin too since I know I won't be able to when I go back to school.

In the past 3 weeks, I bought Sonic Rider: Zero Gravity for the Wii, Street Fighter IV for PS3 as a Birthday present from my parents, and Resistance: Fall of Man for PS3 which I beat in less than 3-4 days with my sister and my friend.  I also beat Kage Densetsu 2 (yes, The Japanese version of The Legend of Kage 2), Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, Rhythm Tengoku Gold (The ruined the english version by translating the songs into english, ugh...), and several other games on the DS I can't remember at the moment as well as Irregular Hunter X (Japanese version of Megaman Maverick Hunter X, now I'm playing the American version) on the PSP.  It sounds like a lot, but I've been playing some of those DS games for more than half a year to a year now.  Although I don't plan on buying anymore games for a while, I took interest in BlazBlue for the PS3, the guys who developed Guilty Gear which I really got into in the past year.  Well, I've ranted on long enough.  Hopefully I'll have some art, music or videos to show you guys on the next post.  Either that, I'll give you some updates on some videogames.  Peace out~

Note: I didn't realize before, but I have a friend who posts videos of games that are very new or in beta stages of their development that I thought I should share with everyone.  His YT Channel is Sasuke13 and I added it to the right-side panel for you guys to check out.  It's a good way to check out gameplay videos for mostly online games, and I know there are a lot of who read my stuff that are looking for an online game to keep them busy throughout summer break.  Enjoy~

Videos relating to post:

Game Previews

Just dropping by - school takes up a lot of time - classes are boring - timing is (sorta) tight.  But nonetheless, I find the time to work on independent projects and play some videogames.  I beat Call of Duty: World at War with Danny 2 nights ago.  Very intense battles with us dying a lot, lol.  It's a new year, and so a lot of videogame release announcements have been made.  OH, before I get to the previews and stuff, please take a look at some stuff I made for Digital Multimedia:

-YTMND: Counting Penguin

-YTMND: Origins of our Alphabet System

-YTMND: Phoenix Knows Reppuken

-YTMND: What Scared Kefka?

-YTMND: Ryouhou for you

(Spread these to your friends, I need 500 views for at least one of them for a grade! 0.0)

View Larger Map

This was a google map project.  I just sent it to my professor a few minutes ago.

And now for the Videogame previews.

[PC] Tom Clancy's HAWX - Action Flight

WOOT!  It's co-op action flight simulator game, and the teaser starts out with a glimpse of Tom Clancy's previous release GRAW (Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter).  This gives me a chance to whip out my Joystick and have some flight simulation fun!

[XBOX 360] X-Blades - Fantasy Shooter (really?  Looks like 3rd person Action Adventure)

Why am I previewing a XBOX 360 game?  Because this game is coming out on PC as well!  Why does it seem interesting?  There's swords, guns, and magic.   Hmmm, sounds like things I'm usually into right?  But yeah, I'll be looking out for this one.

[Playstation 3] Street Fighter IV - Fighting

C'mon~~~How can you not be excited about this game?  Street Fighter is what made me love fighting games in the first place.  And with the return of Sakura Kasugano (gah, I love her! XD), this game is going to rock like none other.  I apologize to those Street Fighter: Third Strike fans, but I really missed the classic characters of the original Street Fighter II series.  HADOUKEN!

[Playstation 2] Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 - Role-Playing

Are you guys surprised they're still releasing PS2 games?  Truthfully, there are still tons of good PS2 games that still aren't released in the US and still in Japan (Shining Wind!!!) and so they continue to import them over and sell them at full price or become rare games (like a lot of Atlus' published games....).  But yeah, I'm a sucker for RPGs and I've always wanted to play the Persona series.  It sounds like it gets better each time they release a new one.

[PSP] Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce - Beat 'em up/Hack 'n Slash

Oh man, everytime I think Koei has reached a climax point in the Dynasty Warriors series, they just keep making it cooler.  In this version of Dynasty Warriors, it's less realistic and more "fantastic" in an over-the-top action battle system where you can fight in mid-air (like in Dragon Ball Z!) and battle against monsterous bosses that fill up the whole screen!  Only problem for me at the moment is that I don't have a PSP.....*sniff*

[Wii] The Conduit - Sci-Fi First-Person Shooter

This game looks very interesting.  Half-Life-like monsters with Halo themed weapontry and the like.  I'm also hoping the aiming system in this game won't be so wacky on the wii like Red Steel was (though I did like the 1 player story mode on that game).  I have high hopes for this game and for the Wii this year.

[NDS] Phantasy Star 0 - Action Role-Playing

An American release has been announced and I'm very excited.  4-player co-op over wi-fi!  Phantasy Star for handheld! (Been wishing that forever) Lots of custom character creation and as always, lots of weapons!!!  The Nintendo DS is littered with a whole line of amazing games this quarter: Ys, Valkyrie Profile, Blue Dragon +, World Destruction, Shining Force Feather, Fire Emblem, Dragon Quest V, Moon, Steal Princess, Big Bang Mini, Suikoden, Tales of Heart, Kingdom hearts, on and on.

So many good games to play, not enough time (and money) to play them all.

Accomplishments and Anticipation

The past 3 weeks have been a crazy ride of work, and it's not even over yet.  In taking a bit of time to unwind at the moment, I wanted to reflect on recent accomplishments and think about things to look forward to.

[Hagakure - Book]

I finally finished reading Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai!  I recieved it as a christmas present 2 years ago from my sister, and I thought it was strange since she knows I don't read too often.  Well, I started reading it earlier this year and stopped for the whole summer (I did not read at all this summer).  It was kinda hard to get into since it was supposed to be deep, intellectual anecdotes that follows the many philosophies of being a samurai and of how to act as a human being.  Some passages were actually inspiring, though it would be difficult to recall a specific one at the moment.

Throughout the last half of the book however, it was mainly about chopping heads off and performing seppuku (cutting one's stomache out at the death of one's master or as a consequence for one's foolishness).  So many stories of cutting a man down and blood flying everywhere and lopping heads off....it was funny and scary at the same time.  Did you guys know that you can stop the bleeding of a wound from drinking a mixture of horse feces and water?  LOL, yeah.....we have alternatives to stop the bleeding in our advanced technological age of medicine.  All in all it was a interesting book and I do not regret one bit in reading it.   Thanks to my sister for buying the book for me.  "It was about samurais and Japan, so I thought you'd like it." - Sam  (I did like it, very much.  Thank you).

[Draglade - DS Game]

It took me a while to get around beating this game, but I managed to find the time to finish it.  It's a mix of rhythm music with fighting genres into one game.  An activity or sport known as "Grapping" becomes the biggest thing in the world.  The player takes the role as one of 4 characters, and each one has their own ambition and story behind why they want to enter in the competition to become a Major grapper (kinda like going pro in a sport in real life).  Each character uses a "G-Con" (summons your weapon) to strike the opponent and create melodies out of the strikes.  This is called grapping, and you can customize the melody and the way it sounds so that you'll get the sound you want when you perform a combo.  The game can get quite challenging, and I've never played on wi-fi; however, I'm pretty sure there are some crazy pro players out there.  The concept is intuitive in that you can change the sound of your combo, combine different bullet sets to use in battle, and combine the attacks together to create some wicked moves.

Graphics are pretty nice.  They have duplicate npcs and monsters, but I'm not complaining.  The animation is pretty smooth, although the controls need a bit of getting used to.  The story mode I finished was Hibito's, the flame glade user.  He says a lot of corny fire puns like "Play with fire and you'll get burned" or "I'll heat things up".  There isn't actually any voice overs, and the dialogue is kinda weird because of the translations (I should get a job at Atlus as a translator [Atlus resides in Irvine, CA]).  The music is okay and distinguishable, though the most memorable tune would be the title theme (which I don't know the name of).  Story is very simple and predictable, but it was still fun to play along with it.  The boss battles get pretty intense, and I think that's what makes worth playing the game (besides making your own "beat").  Overall, I'd give this game about a 7.5/10 or so on the top of my head.  Oh yeah, there's co-op quest mode too, I haven't tried it yet, but that's a plus too!

[Visual Culture Project - Video]

I'm not complete yet, but got most of it done.  I just have to compose, mix, arrange the music and edit the film.  I've spent most of the past 3 weeks working on this, and since I think I'll like it, I'm probably gonna put it up on Facebook.

[Fallout 3 - PC Game]

I'm sorry to say that I haven't played (or possibly heard of) Fallout or Fallout 2.  But when I heard about Fallout 3, I still wasn't interested.....until I heard it was an RPG game.  I do love games of all genre, but after the explosion of games that came out when there was once 4 major consoles (now 3, sorry Sega) I started to become very careful on what game I choose to play that won't take up so much time so that I can play other ones.  Anyways, I heard nothing but great reviews about Fallout 3 (except that it's full of glitches).  The graphics are amazing with its crazy rendering of an entire city and vast land areas to travel to.  The quest system keeps the players coming back for more (I heard you could be busy an entire year just by playing the game).  And the concept is completely different from the once top down view and action/rpg mix.

Man, pretty violent....

[Left 4 Dead - PC Game (Steam)]

I used to hate zombie games a lot.  Especially when Resident Evil first came out, I asked "why do they make games that freak you out?"  Well,  I learned later that it was the same reason why they make horror films: "For the thrills and chills....I guess?"  Anyways, it gets your blood pumping and it got really exciting when they started making those zombie games action genres.  Left 4 Dead is a 4-player co-op Action Horror survival FPS game that pits you and 3 of your friends with a city filled with zombies everywhere.  It uses the steam system, so we can expect the controls and graphic rendering to be good.  It looks pretty crazy from what I've seen so far from this game.

I'm not going to say that it's an original concept with super intuitive gameplay and all (especially since past games on steam such as Counter-Strike, The Specialist, and Half-Life all had some sort of play vs. hordes of zombie mods implemented on the server's list), but I am very excited that there is a (supposedly) decent multiplayer co-op game coming out that my friends agreed on trying out.  A demo is available on the steam engine Nov. 11, so you'll know that I'll be trying it out this up coming weekend.

So that's it for now, I should go cook dinner, work on my Videogame development work for tommorrow, and continue my visual culture project by starting on the music!  (So tired....)

Excite, happy, nervous, buh?

I got new laptop, ipod touch, yamaha headphones, keyboard sustain pedal, a new phone (same number, don't worry), external hard drive, a wireless mouse, and a really cool mouse pad to start my new life in college....which doesn't really start until next week.

It was very tiring trying to find out how to get applications on my new ipod (which appearently I can't because of my firmware) and getting my laptop to dual boot was a nightware as I spent 2 entire days working on it. I say it was worth it because I learned a lot more about computers through my struggle. School is approaching and I'm kinda nervous about the difference in enviornment is going to be. Doing my own laundry is one of my concerns, and so will living with a room mate. I'm just hoping for the best and maybe become good friends with my room mates. I am a bit excited about the new classes I'm going to be taking as well as dreading the ones I'm gonna hate (Art History, ewwwhwhehwwww, but not this quarter).

But enough of school stuff, I learned some new things in the gaming world that excites me!

Phantasy Star Universe wasn't a big hit to the fans of Phantasy Star Online, but it was sure interesting to me.  I haven't gotten that far on PSU, but I've been hoping for a handheld version of the series for a while.  So to hear that there's one coming out on PSP (a system I do not have....) I got really excite yet sad since I don't have a PSP.  But then I heard there was one coming out for the DS:

It's going to be 4 player co-op, Action RPG, with Wi-Fi online capabilties of playing with other players.  You would use the touch screen to give directions or ask for orders to communicate with other players.

It's....It's so beautiful~~~~~~Unfortunately for me, it doesn't come out till December.....In JAPAN!!!  Which means I might have to wait till next summer or longer before it comes to America.  It should be brought over considering the success of PSO and eventually PSU because of the expansion pack.

I don't have to be too sad, since Castlevania Order of Ecclesia is coming out (supposedly) October 28 or so.  Castlevania being one of my favorite francises in the gaming world, I am definately buying that game when it comes out.

mmm, hot girl that kills tons of demons and vampires...okay, she's not incredibly hot, but I like how they have a female lead character (I guess Charlotte counts from the last installment).  This character looks very serious and dire compared to Charlotte though.  And from what I understand, you don't pick up weapons in the game, but glyphs.  Glyphs have abilities of summons, magic, and effect by conjuring it and using a bit of mp (magic power).  So a sword could emerge out of thin air by using a sword glyph.  This is only a guess, so I'm not sure if that's how it really looks.

Another Castlevania game coming out takes a bold turn and becomes a fighting game:

Castlevania Judgement gave me a real shock when I first heard about it on Nintendo Power magazine (while I was down in Irvine during July too if anyone remembers that post).  But I like fighting games, and I love Castlevania, so I'm hoping this game will be at least decent.  A lot of fans didn't like the 3D castlevania, so it's no surprise to see a whole bunch of whiners complaining about this game (btw, I liked the 3D castlevania games and am trying to beat Curse of Darkness).

Well, I'm going to be leaving soon and going to Irvine, and I'm going to really miss everyone here and the ones going to different colleges.  I wish all of you the best of luck this school year and will continue to blog in the future~

First Comic Post and Handheld Games Preview

[Ragnarok: The World's not over Yet]

It's been a while since I've done a post since I'm trying to make my summer worthwhile with my music, drawing, videos, reading, exercising, and of course playing some videogames.  Anyways, I started a new comic series that I may or may not continue drawing considering how long it took just to do one page, and it isn't even up to par in terms of humor with my other original comic (to those that know of it).  There are only some of those who know I like drawing comics, and so to those that know about my older comics, the drawing on this one page might look a bit similar.  I hope to evolve out of that and become a bit more creative with my art.  Anyways, here it is:

I've been thinking of just doing Ragnarok references in my original comic, but was inspired to start its own series upon hearing my friend Danny's desire to write fanfiction stories of the experiences from the game "Ragnarok Online" on his blog page.  Danny has yet to write any yet considering that he is possibly busier than I am.  I am not completely content with my first page on this series, mainly because it took so long to do with drafting, character design, coloring, scanning and editing; however, I was at the very least able finish one page.  I was thinking on developing a strong storyline with this series, but that all depends if I continue creating it even after I transfer to my new college.  I really want to work on my art, but I also love working on my music, video and game creations (which I would like to do= last game made and finished was probably Junior year High school).  PS: A possibly better view of the comic can be seen within my new album on "Facebook".

[Ipod game - Song Summoner]

An incredibly intriguing game that came out recently for the Ipod called "Song Summoner" by the esteemed software industry "Square-Enix" (known for their Final Fantasy series) has me interested in buying a new Gen Ipod (160GB classic) so that I could play it.  [Note- I don't know every aspect of the game, so the description might be off] In "Song Summoner" you play the role of Ziggy who is confronted by an army of robots who wish to eradicate the human race and take all things musical away from them.  A man comes and teaches you the ways of using music as your weapon.  So what exactly is the weapon?  The music you have uploaded in your Ipod!!!  You choose whatever song you have and the game turns it into a playable character that will fight for you.  So what's the point in using the music on your Ipod?  Well, each time you listen to that particular song you chose to be a character on your Ipod, your character will get stronger each time:

The genre of the game is turn-based tactics (to those that know what it means), which means it's like a Role-Playing Chess game (to those that don't play videogames).  If I had the appropriate Ipod to play it on, I would not hesitate to buy this game (which I usually would when looking at Ipod and cellphone games).  It is available on iTunes for $5, so I think it's worthwhile.

[NDS - Final Fantasy IV]

Final Fantasy IV (known as Final Fantasy II in America when my dad bought it on Super Nintendo) was the first Final Fantasy game that I played (or watched my dad play, I used to always watch him play videogames).  So upon hearing Square-Enix's plan on remaking Final Fantasy III-VI on the DS in 3D got me excited.  Though I did not play Final Fantasy III that much (mainly because it did not come out in America on the NES) I thought of the remake on the DS to be interesting, especially with the incredible CG opening video to the game.

I'm not very far on it, so I don't know what to say about it.  Final Fantasy IV's CG opening on the other hand brought me to tears with it's dynamic CG opening and beautifully arranged music that brought back so many memories (I was about 5 or so when FF2, aka FF4 in Japan during that time, came out).

The obvious difference in the remake was the 3d view and rendering of all the characters and scenery.  Much of the game has been kept true to the original, so it feels very comfortable to veteran FF4 players.  But the aspect of the game that had me awestruck was the voiceovers.  The voice acting was surprisingly stupendous!  What's even stranger is that I think the english voice acting is even better than the Japanese voice acting.  I think what got me interested into Final Fantasy (besides my dad's influence on me) is the storylines (usually Hironobu Sakaguchi), the artworks (usually Yoshitaka Amano or Tetsuya Nomura), and especially the music (Nobuo Uematsu!).  The remake of Final Fantasy III was only average from the critics, but FF IV made up for it, scoring an average of 9-10 out of 10.  I don't know exactly what it is about Final Fantasy games that makes me love it so much, but I already knew I was a Final Fantasy fan when FFIV (remember, it was FFII in America during that time) came out.

hmm...I would do a review on it, but I just practically started.  It only came out 3 days ago (in America, it was out in Japan Nov. 2007).  But who cares, BUY IT!  BUY IT NOW!!!  (Though if you have an Ipod, I would suggest getting Song Summoner since it's more affordable.  FFIV DS=$40.  Song Summoner Ipod= $5).