This year was supposed to be all about RPGs as I tried to cut down on buying games and focus on the longer games I have in my collection of backlogged games. And yet, I'm about to make several purchases all relating to the fighting games genre as a slew of games releases for the Fall. But I guess I should talk a little about work before I get on to games.
It's been a while since I've brought out my Mix Turn-Table and messed around with it. I played around for it a bit and decided to do some mixes. So far, I've made 3 mixes: a slower, harder electronic mix; a somewhat faster and upbeat electronic mix; a vocal electronic mix; and then I have 2 other mixes planned (a Trance mix and a Drum 'n Bass mix). It's a small break from the usual work I do for music, but I've also been looking into job openings and fixing my resumé throughout the month. Eager to get back into doing some real work with music, I decided to do a remix of the new main theme for Super Smash Bros. 3DS/Wii U.
I started last week and finished last night so that I could upload it today. Other than remixing the main theme of Super Smash Bros., I also added in a song from Mega Man 2, Pac-Mania, Punch-Out!!, and Xenoblade Chronicles in celebration of the addition of these 4 new characters to the game. I've gotten to play Mega Man in the demo for Smash Bros., but I'll talk about that a little later. I'm really not sure what I'm supposed to do right now. Finding an open position in anything in the game industry is difficult, let alone trying to find one specifically in music composition. And there's still so many personal projects I want to fulfill. But it's hard to think about any of that when October is going to be filled with so many distractions!
Super Smash Bros. 3DS releases this Friday on October 3rd, 2014. That's all I could think about this month! And somehow, I still managed to work on my resumé and finish 5 music projects (3 mixes, the Super Smash Bros. Remix, and last week I recorded a piano arrangement of a song from Rusty Hearts).
So before I forget, Rusty Hearts shut down this month on the 15th. I was sad to hear the news but wasn't entirely surprised seeing the low population of the servers. It was definitely one of my favorite online games with the witty dialogue, dynamic combat mechanics, and entrancing music.
I'm definitely going to buy Super Smash Bros. 3DS this Friday, but I'm also considering on buying Arcana Hearts 3 Love Max!!!!! for the PS Vita since they added new characters and a extra story mode to the very brief story mode for each character they already have. And since it's a fighting game, it's probably a game I'll play for a really long time so I don't feel as bad getting it at full price. That's 2 games right there. Then there's Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus, which I pre-ordered already, that revealed to have a release date of October 14th. The September 30th date listed was an estimate and not an official release date. At least it'll give me some time to play Smash Bros. a bit before I get it. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax comes out tonight, but I might wait to get it. I also realize I haven't gotten BlazBlue Chronophantasma yet, but I'm waiting for a more definitive version since they keep popping out DLC characters. Then there's the hope that Dengenki Bunko Fighting Climax will release in the West, Under Night In-Birth gets pushed back to next year, and Yatagarasu Attack on Cataclysm should be releasing sometime soon. That's a whole lot of Fighting Games! And fighting games can last a very very long time depending on how much you play them. I actually haven't been playing that much Fighting games this year as I try to get into my RPGs. I got through Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 while I started Lightning Returns (It's pretty fun so far). I had gotten through StarCraft 2 Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm about 2 months ago (which are not RPGs, but are long overdue in being played). Still, RPGs wear me out because of how long some of them are and so I fall back on shorter games. Because of that, I've been playing (and buying) a LOT of platformers. I think I've bought over a dozen platformers this year if not two dozens. One of them was Azure Striker Gunvolt, which I knew I wanted to get way before it released since it's by the creators of the Megaman Zero series. I beat the game fairly quickly but enjoyed it immensely. It reminded me of the simple yet challenging joy of difficult Action-Platformers. After beating it, I realized I never beat Megaman Zero 3 and 4 in which I did so shortly after. MMZ 3 was pretty hard while MMZ 4 was stupidly hard. MMZ 2 was definitely my favorite in terms of overall gameplay and presentation. But not all the platformers I played were great. Last month, I mentioned Platformines. That was fun for a bit and then became stupid and annoying. Blade Kitten was actually alright. It was pretty fun, but I wasn't happy to find out that it was a cliff-hanger ending. Then there was Blood of the Werewolf where it just bugged me throughout the whole game with "why would they design it like this?". It was also a cliff-hanger ending which I didn't care since I didn't even enjoy the game that much. The Expendabros was pretty entertaining, and it was free! It was also only an hour long. With all these other games, it's hard to focus on the longer ones. I've been playing Project X Zone for over a year now! It's fun, but it's hard to get through since it's so long. Despite my large collection of unplayed games, I continue to buy more games because of sales. I bought Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies alongside Azure Striker Gunvolt since it was $18 from it's usual $40. That's hard to pass up! But I haven't found ANY time to play it, and I'm about to get Smash Bros. for my 3DS which gives me even less reason to play it at the moment! Even then, I ended up buying Tales of Symphonia Chronicles and Shin Megami Tensei IV (2 more long RPGs!) two days ago since they were on sale for $20 each. After the incident with Xenoblade Chronicles, I get paranoid about certain games becoming too rare and being sold for unreasonable prices. All I can do is take it one game at a time. I'm very close to finishing Ys: Memories of Celceta for the PS Vita. I like it, it's a fun game! A part of me thinks it's not as fun as Ys; Oath in Felghana, but I think it's mainly because it's a slightly different experience. After Ys is Hyperdimension Neptunia PP. I'm not sure if I can finish that before the end of the week if I really do plan on buying Arcana Heart 3 Love Max!!!!! Not to mention I still have Persona 4 Golden, but I don't plan on playing it until I play through Persona 3 at least once. It's still not as bad of a backlog as my 3DS is building up. I remember when I first got my 3DS, I only had super short games and finished them all. Because of that, I wanted longer games to play. Now I have too many long games and I can't finish them in time for the next one! Other than not knowing what to do for the next month because of difficulty in finding an open position to apply to, I really don't know what to do to pass the time before this Friday in which I'll be playing a LOT of Super Smash Bros. I guess I'll try to finish Ys: MoC and then play Hyperdimension Neptunia PP. Waiting for Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus will be a cinch since I'll have Super Smash Bros. to play.
I've been finding a lot of new music to listen to. One of the things I found to listen to is the soundtrack for Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson.
It's crazy how big Senran Kagura got. We haven't even gotten Shinovi Versus yet, but Japan already got 3 other Senran Kagura games after that one with a new one announced called "Shinovi Estival" releasing for the PS Vita and PS4 next year. So far, I really like the music in Senran Kagura 2 - Deep Crimson. I kind of wish it wasn't so focused on fan-service and busty girls so that the franchise could be as big in the West. Unfortunately, it probably wouldn't have gotten as big in Japan and thus not worth bringing to the West in the first place. It can be really hard to favor the audience of both the East (or Japan in particular) and the West. Still, I'm glad the games are being brought over since I'm enjoying them so much.
I just finished watching an animé called "No Game No Life" and it was great! It was fast, witty, and unpredictable. It was also very colorful and wild. You can't really mistaken it for any other animé, even by just looking at screenshots of it. I also really liked the BGM as it was very electronic influenced which really made heated parts of the show even more exciting. The show also makes a TON of references from other animé and games. I loved the show. It was fun, exciting, funny, and very cute. It also ended way too fast.
I think that's enough for now. My brain can't function correctly right now. All I can think about it is "Smash Bros."!
Monday, September 29, 2014
Thursday, August 28, 2014
I feel tired...why am I tired?
I'm feeling rather lethargic recently, but I haven't been working THAT hard this month. I've been getting my portfolio straightened out and it's finished! Or so I thought. I might be applying to a position that involves working with sound effects and not music. So now I've got to find some of the work I did with sound effects, which makes me nervous. Sound effects isn't exactly my forte and I enjoy working with music more. But it's been exactly 3 years as of this month since I've had a real job, so I need to take advantage of the opportunity now that it's available. On the bright side, my resumé has been updated and looks stronger. I've also updated my LinkedIn account, though I really need to add a picture to it. I guess I mainly feel tired whenever I think about having to look for job openings and going through the whole process of applying since I've done it so many times in the past 4 years. But once I've gone through some job searches, I want to get back into working with some more projects while I wait for a response back.
I finally have a PS Vita! Yay! And then a week after, fans complain that the PS Vita is being ignored entirely by Sony during the Gamescom Convention. I said I'd buy a PS Vita if Phantasy Star Nova or Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus was being released here in America, and the latter was announced for a physical copy release. It was quite the day when I decided to buy one, because it was apparently sold out EVERYWHERE. I went around the city to three different GameStops and 2 Targets and picked up Ragnarok Odyssey ACE and Hyperdimension Neptunia PP while a PS Vita slim Bundle was nowhere to be found. I decided to go home and buy one from Amazon because I still saw it available 2 days prior that day. I get on Amazon only to find out that they're sold out and the sellers listed were posting it for $250 rather than the original $200. I looked online in other stores and every store was sold out other than BestBuy. So I ended up ordering it online from BestBuy while I bought Ys: Memories of Celceta and Persona 4 Golden along with a PS Vita Slim Grip on Amazon. Amazingly, I got the PS Vita 2 days after and got to play it over that weekend. I tried Hyperdimension Neptunia PP for about 40 mintues before I switched it back to Ragnarok Odyssey ACE and decided to take it one game at a time. I've already accumulated 38 hours on RO ACE in the past 3 weeks and love it!
And I love it even more when my grip came in because it's not comfortable holding the PS Vita, just like the PSP. The grip makes it less portable, but it's a world of difference in ergonomics. But the device is not without faults. It took way too long to just set up the system to play. The device has WAY too many arbitrary functions and makes me wonder if they would have saved more money if they hadn't spent so much on certain things (besides the applications, there's the backside touch sensor that's rarely used). It's quite evident that Sony isn't making a huge profit out of the Vita because they're not restocking it in stores and they're not promoting it as often as they should. I also don't like how the battery life is barely 5 hours. I have to recharge my PS Vita every 1-2 days while I recharged my 3DS every 6-8 days when I first got it (meaning when I was playing it every day). Despite its shortcomings, I really like my PS Vita and really enjoy Ragnarok Odyssey ACE as my first game for it. I can't wait to play all the other games I'll be getting for it.
One game I played a whole bunch recently was Dishonored. I had heard so much about the game but never really looked into it because I had always planned on getting it when it was cheap enough. I had purchased it back in Steam Winter Sales 2013 but didn't get around to playing it until the summer time. I finally played through it all in July and loved it! I played it through two more times just to try out new things. First time around, I played it entirely stealth. Second playthrough, I went as aggressive as possible and killed everyone I came across. On my last run, I tried to get through the game as fast as possible while killing as few people as possible (which ended up being 4-5 people, I think) and finished at around 3 hours when it took me 18 hours the first time to beat it. The game's a beautiful mix between Action and Stealth and works so well together. Dishonored was a really good game and I enjoyed playing it enough time to play it 3 times in a row. And then I played a bunch of games that I thought was okay or boring. I finally got through ICO and thought it was okay. The game's solid with its design and concept, but I was only mildly entertained by it. The Swapper was also okay. Although the idea behind the game and level designs were great, I got kind of bored after a while. Platformines started off being really fun, but became really stupid as I finished it. It's also one of the very few games where I had to mute the music because it was so distracting and annoying that I couldn't keep it on anymore:
I finally got through Arcania: Gothic 4 and Arcania: Fall of Setarrif this week. I bought those two games back in Steam Summer Sale 2012. The game was full of graphic glitches, the combat was boring, the voice acting was really off in a lot of parts, and I was always at a loss of where to go next. Throughout the entire time, I was wishing I was playing Divinity 2 or Two Worlds 2 instead. I considered quitting the game many times but was stubborn and kept to it. Arcania wasn't a very good game, yet I kind of had a fulfilling adventure from it. Traveling around the open world, meeting all sorts of quirky characters, and fighting a bunch of enemies all felt like an adventure from a fantasy novel. So in a sense, I enjoyed the experience of adventure and didn't enjoy the gameplay so much. It's hard to describe the game's worth, but I supposed I can say that I don't regret playing through it. I also understand why people were so upset with Fall of Setarrif after I finished it in 2.3 hours. It's essentially a more conclusive ending to the original game, but it wasn't that great.
After completing ICO, I've finally started Final Fantasy XIII-2. The gameplay is the same and so it's not that exciting; however, I find the story of the game to be compelling and interesting compared to the first one. I'm enjoying it.
In terms of animé, I've been watching Love Live! School Idol Project.
I remember seeing the game on iOS and downloaded it to play it and thought it was only okay. You get songs really slowly, and the songs aren't as memorable. But then a friend recommended that I watch the animé and so I did after I finished "Is the Order a Rabbit?" I really enjoy the show! I haven't been paying that much attention to animé since it's already hard to enough to keep up with videogames, but there certainly are a lot of shows I want to watch. I still lean more towards Slice-of-Life and comedy animé, though. I'm not sure if I can handle watching anymore depressing shows. Even so, I feel like I should really watch Attack on Titan and Evangelion (both original and new).
I really do feel tired and just want to play games and watch animé all day, though. But I think it's a really bad time for me to be doing that right now. I want to stay productive. Even if I can find a job opening to apply for, I still want to spend the day making more music and working on projects. The idea of being able to play games freely and enjoy myself at this time does sound very inviting, though.
I finally have a PS Vita! Yay! And then a week after, fans complain that the PS Vita is being ignored entirely by Sony during the Gamescom Convention. I said I'd buy a PS Vita if Phantasy Star Nova or Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus was being released here in America, and the latter was announced for a physical copy release. It was quite the day when I decided to buy one, because it was apparently sold out EVERYWHERE. I went around the city to three different GameStops and 2 Targets and picked up Ragnarok Odyssey ACE and Hyperdimension Neptunia PP while a PS Vita slim Bundle was nowhere to be found. I decided to go home and buy one from Amazon because I still saw it available 2 days prior that day. I get on Amazon only to find out that they're sold out and the sellers listed were posting it for $250 rather than the original $200. I looked online in other stores and every store was sold out other than BestBuy. So I ended up ordering it online from BestBuy while I bought Ys: Memories of Celceta and Persona 4 Golden along with a PS Vita Slim Grip on Amazon. Amazingly, I got the PS Vita 2 days after and got to play it over that weekend. I tried Hyperdimension Neptunia PP for about 40 mintues before I switched it back to Ragnarok Odyssey ACE and decided to take it one game at a time. I've already accumulated 38 hours on RO ACE in the past 3 weeks and love it!
And I love it even more when my grip came in because it's not comfortable holding the PS Vita, just like the PSP. The grip makes it less portable, but it's a world of difference in ergonomics. But the device is not without faults. It took way too long to just set up the system to play. The device has WAY too many arbitrary functions and makes me wonder if they would have saved more money if they hadn't spent so much on certain things (besides the applications, there's the backside touch sensor that's rarely used). It's quite evident that Sony isn't making a huge profit out of the Vita because they're not restocking it in stores and they're not promoting it as often as they should. I also don't like how the battery life is barely 5 hours. I have to recharge my PS Vita every 1-2 days while I recharged my 3DS every 6-8 days when I first got it (meaning when I was playing it every day). Despite its shortcomings, I really like my PS Vita and really enjoy Ragnarok Odyssey ACE as my first game for it. I can't wait to play all the other games I'll be getting for it.
One game I played a whole bunch recently was Dishonored. I had heard so much about the game but never really looked into it because I had always planned on getting it when it was cheap enough. I had purchased it back in Steam Winter Sales 2013 but didn't get around to playing it until the summer time. I finally played through it all in July and loved it! I played it through two more times just to try out new things. First time around, I played it entirely stealth. Second playthrough, I went as aggressive as possible and killed everyone I came across. On my last run, I tried to get through the game as fast as possible while killing as few people as possible (which ended up being 4-5 people, I think) and finished at around 3 hours when it took me 18 hours the first time to beat it. The game's a beautiful mix between Action and Stealth and works so well together. Dishonored was a really good game and I enjoyed playing it enough time to play it 3 times in a row. And then I played a bunch of games that I thought was okay or boring. I finally got through ICO and thought it was okay. The game's solid with its design and concept, but I was only mildly entertained by it. The Swapper was also okay. Although the idea behind the game and level designs were great, I got kind of bored after a while. Platformines started off being really fun, but became really stupid as I finished it. It's also one of the very few games where I had to mute the music because it was so distracting and annoying that I couldn't keep it on anymore:
I finally got through Arcania: Gothic 4 and Arcania: Fall of Setarrif this week. I bought those two games back in Steam Summer Sale 2012. The game was full of graphic glitches, the combat was boring, the voice acting was really off in a lot of parts, and I was always at a loss of where to go next. Throughout the entire time, I was wishing I was playing Divinity 2 or Two Worlds 2 instead. I considered quitting the game many times but was stubborn and kept to it. Arcania wasn't a very good game, yet I kind of had a fulfilling adventure from it. Traveling around the open world, meeting all sorts of quirky characters, and fighting a bunch of enemies all felt like an adventure from a fantasy novel. So in a sense, I enjoyed the experience of adventure and didn't enjoy the gameplay so much. It's hard to describe the game's worth, but I supposed I can say that I don't regret playing through it. I also understand why people were so upset with Fall of Setarrif after I finished it in 2.3 hours. It's essentially a more conclusive ending to the original game, but it wasn't that great.
After completing ICO, I've finally started Final Fantasy XIII-2. The gameplay is the same and so it's not that exciting; however, I find the story of the game to be compelling and interesting compared to the first one. I'm enjoying it.
In terms of animé, I've been watching Love Live! School Idol Project.
I remember seeing the game on iOS and downloaded it to play it and thought it was only okay. You get songs really slowly, and the songs aren't as memorable. But then a friend recommended that I watch the animé and so I did after I finished "Is the Order a Rabbit?" I really enjoy the show! I haven't been paying that much attention to animé since it's already hard to enough to keep up with videogames, but there certainly are a lot of shows I want to watch. I still lean more towards Slice-of-Life and comedy animé, though. I'm not sure if I can handle watching anymore depressing shows. Even so, I feel like I should really watch Attack on Titan and Evangelion (both original and new).
I really do feel tired and just want to play games and watch animé all day, though. But I think it's a really bad time for me to be doing that right now. I want to stay productive. Even if I can find a job opening to apply for, I still want to spend the day making more music and working on projects. The idea of being able to play games freely and enjoy myself at this time does sound very inviting, though.
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