Mail received! Also, Persona 4.

[aruru]

redconverse, I got your card in the mail yesterday! (Monday, that is) And I think the snowman's looking at the birds in order to forget the trauma the pug's causing him with his "indecent" pawing, haha! XD Nah, seriously, it's actually a rather nice card, despite all your claims that they were the cheapo-bin stuff. Or maybe I just have no taste. XD Don't answer that, peanut gallery! Anyway, thanks a lot, you're awesome! *HUG* ^o^ (And aww, don't worry about the present, I'm just happy to be in your thoughts! Also, remember that I'm totally rooting for ya and think you'll make a kickass nurse when you graduate! ♥)

Also, shinkuu, I got your package in earlier today! (Or yesterday, since it's nearly 2:00 AM now. :P) The wrapping is really pretty, and I've been a good girl and kept myself from opening it until Chrstmas. Thanks in advance for whatever it is! :D



Additionally... er, wow, it's been four weeks since my last post? Eep, getting careless again! :O My time has kinda been eaten up with the usual offline errands and appointments, and whatever free time I have after that has mostly been taken up by playing either Chrono Trigger DS (Which, despite being a basic port with a few extras, is still as awesome a game as I remember... even though I do find it a bit easier in the challenge level than what I remembered it being as a teenager. Maybe the new dungeons will be more of a match for me, whenever I get around to them, heh...) or Persona 4.

Persona 4... well, I'm woefully, WOEFULLY behind certain people on my friends list here and on JournalFen (You know who you all are. :P), partly because I've always been a slow-as-molasses gamer and partly because right now I'm level/Persona-slutting and money- and weapon/armor material-farming to see if I can tackle the first optional boss fight early on, so... yeah, I'm laughably still only at 5/1 in the game's calendar, hahaha. XD

Still, it's looking like a really neat game thus far! Some small thoughts on the events thus far:

- First off, in that grand tradition of mine, I spent a good 15+ minutes in the naming screen trying to figure out what the hell to call the Protagonist. I finally settled on "Hikaru Nakata," which I think makes my Slayers-fangirl days painfully obvious, LOL... XD (Speaking of that series, I'm a bad fangirl and haven't seen ANY of Revolution yet. Yeah, I know, blasphemy! :O Anyway, I think it's been licensed already, but... can anyone recommend a good or at least worth-the-download fansubber that I can find through Tokyotosho or something, if there are any still left? And while we're in this discussion, IS the new series worth downloading at all? Thanks in advance for the input!)

- Speaking of the Protagonist, our new hero's design (Which I initially thought a little goofy, since his haircut looks a little weird on some of his character art. It's since grown on me.) has a more "honest/open" look to him than the P3 one (who, according to ruaki, was "an evil seme," haha XD) did. Most of his answer choices thus far in the game seem to point in that direction, too.

- Anyway, the Protagonist's family... well, damn, Dojima (the uncle) is HOT! Gotta love the old dudes, heheh. >D And his daughter seems adorable, and pretty mature for her age, seeing as how she seems to take care of everything involving the household.

- LOL, you first day at school is greeted by Yosuke trying to ride his bike while holding an umbrella (and failing miserably). Great start to what no doubt will be an... interesting school year, heh. XD

- Speaking of Yosuke, he seems cool thus far, if a little "trying too hard" to please others. Still, I've seen ruaki, arcian, AND redconverse ALL say he becomes kind of an asshat later on (which if true, makes me sadpants, as I like his design and personality thus far), so I guess I'll have to wait and see. :(

- Chie seems pretty cool too. And damn, can she kick butt (and make great nut-shots... LOL, poor Yosuke, don't mess with her DVDs XD) with those legs of hers! The only reason she isn't hitting for quite as much damage as Yosuke right now (though the difference isn't much) is probably because I found that better weapon for him.

- Yukiko... is pretty reserved, I think, which doesn't make her seem as dynamic/engaging as the other two. She was pretty cute and silly when she tried on the funny glasses Teddie had made, though! I hope she starts showing more of that (Maybe through S.Links?) soon. :)

- Teddie's cute! I like how he's adorable (despite his "fursuit" being empty being kinda creepy) and kinda clueless about some things (like not knowing what "scoring a hot stud" meant), yet still not clueless enough to fail at noticing cute girls - his scene with Yukiko after rescuing her was pretty squishy. Also, is it just me, or does his voice acting vaguely remind you of Kon from the Bleach dub? (Speaking of Bleach, when you watch the gameplay demo intro, Naoto's voice when summoning slightly reminds me of Rukia's dub voice... anyone else think the same?)

- Anyway, gameplay: I really appreciate the fact that you have the option to give direct commands to your team! It may make the game "slower" to get through, but I tend to prefer that battle system to relying on AI. I'm glad they gave people the option to play whatever they're more comfortable with!

- I like how the emo glasses didn't turn out to be Evokers after all. I suppose you could make an argument about how the glasses may be imagery for how they let you see past the fog of lies/confusion and see things in the shadow-world for what they really are, though.

- Still no clue as to what's actually going on, but I do enjoy the whole "murder mystery! While having to deal with school, work and a social life!" aspect of the story, though.

- So, your team's Personae: I'm liking how things for your team are kinda a coming-of-age story, with the whole "facing and accepting your ugly side in order to tap into your true power, and thus grow as a person" bit.

- Speaking of the Shadow-selves, I think my favorite ones thus far have been Shadow-Chie for the dominatrix look she had going on (LOL), and Shadow-Yukiko because of the whole caged-bird symbolism. (Ok, so it was blatantly obvious an image given her rant before transforming, but it was still highly appropiate.) I didn't get a really good look at Shadow-Yosuke before beating it, but from what I remember seeing, his was less of a "personal" imagery and more "cultural," as it was based on the whole Jiraya myth. (Then again, I may've missed something that made it a little more personal for him.)

- Lastly, as for S.Links, I've started a number of them, though none are higher than Rank 3 (which I think I have with Yosuke) yet - I've been a good little hero and been focusing on studying whenever I'm not trying to progress the S.Links or level-slutting it up in the dungeon, since the game warned that tests are coming soon.


...aaaaaaaaaaand I think we're done, for the time being! As I said, the game shows plenty of promise, so I'll try to make another game log soon enough. :)

Comments

[arcian.livejournal.com]

Aw... You'll probably have plenty of time to catch up to me. My family's in town for the holidays, so that means no gaming (or, at least, no gaming where I have to stop every five minutes to explain what the Christ is wrong with all these bug-eyed anime kids).

"No Mom, I don't know why that girl just turned into a dominatrix... Pass the turnip, please?"

[aruru.livejournal.com]

Heh, even with that, I highly doubt I'll catch up to ya - I just really am that slow, and easily distracted on top of that. ^^;;

And LMAO, I think this is why I'm somewhat glad that the huge generation gap between my parents and I makes them rarely so much as glance at my games/anime/etc. - sure, no... uh, interesting or memorable conversations/discussions arise from it, but then again, I don't have to spend time embarassing myself having to explain why some of the stuff I like isn't "cute-looking" or "pleasant." ^^;;

[ruaki.livejournal.com]

Oh, Yosuke's still pretty awesome--I mean, he's my favorite, really--even if he does become a bit of an asshat. He also tends to be an asshat toward certain characters more than others... >.> Honestly, it's pretty obvious the game makes him a foil-esque character that you bounce your answers and thoughts off of since the MC doesn't actually have a set personality.

MOST OF MY OPINION OF YOSUKE IS ALSO BASED ON HOW USEFUL HE IS IN BATTLE AND HOW PRETTY HIS CUTIN IS FOR THE ALL-OUT-ATTACK SO I DUNNO I COULD BE BIASED :D:D:D

But I was kinda sadpants that Yosuke didn't get a really neat looking Shadow-Persona compared to uh... everyone else--it actually looks more like a weird ass jumble of Jiraiya more than a twisted version of his id. I may have missed something too, but maybe there's something cultural in it that applies to his situation that we don't know about cause we're not Japanese. =(

Speaking of the Shadow-Persona, Persona 4 is probably the most obviously Jungian influenced because of them. It's a lot more subtle in the other games, but it's just like "BITCH SMACK TO THE FACE WITH SOME JUNG!" here. XD; I lol'd.

I LOVE TEDDIE =(
His VA is uh... Cliff from Star Ocean 3 (one of the few charas with a decent VA), which I guess doesn't help you much. Dave Wittenburg is his name though... he did a great job as the Coffinmaster in Baroque too... Only heard the Bleach dub briefly (to LOL that Johnny Yong Bosch playing Ichigo wtf), so I didn't get a chance to hear Kon...

[aruru.livejournal.com]

Haha, yeah, I LOVE Yosuke's cutin for that attack, too. So pritty! *_* Then again, I like all the AOA cutins I've seen thus far. (I think the one I like "least" is probably Chie's, and that's only because I... kinda find her a little more plain in design in comparison to some of the others. I do like that green and yellow jacket of hers, though. :D)

I tried looking up Jiraiya on Wikipedia to see if it had any info that might point as to why they focused on the legend rather than Yosuke's id in his Shadow-self's design, but no dice. All it says is what I already knew from glossing over the chara intro section of the player's guide (and amusingly enough, what I had learned from watching Naruto, hahaha). Boo. :P

LOL, yeah, IIRC you're a fan of Jungian psychology? You must be loving the overtness of it, then! XD

Ah, I was wrong - I checked IMDB.com, and Kon's voiced by Quinton Flynn (Isn't he the guy who played Axel in KH2? I still need to play that game someday...). The way Wittenburg voices Teddie is kinda reminiscent of Flynn's plushie!Kon, though, which is why I got confused.

As for Naoto's summoning in the intro demo reminding me of Rukia, well, I can't check that, as there's no P4 entry there yet (Boo! :( ). I DID find out that the woman who plays Rukia was also the voice of Yukari in P3 though, so either Atlus liked her enough to decide to have her play another role for them, or I'm completely off... which wouldn't be surprising, as I don't have a very good ear for voice acting save for the Really Obvious People. :P (Nakata-san, Midorikawa-san, Vic Mignona, for example.)

As for Bleach and Johnny Yong Bosch, I think he plays a pretty decent Ichigo (Though I've never gotten a really good listen to his original seiyuu, so I can't compare them.), including when he does Hollow!Ichigo - that guy's only shown up for maybe 4 or 5 eps thus far, but still, that is one pretty crazy, bloodthirsty motherfucker, heh.

edited for clarity

[ruaki.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Teddie actually sounds like the voice Flynn uses for Morbo in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology as well, so I actually thought it may have been Flynn at first. But no, it's Dave.

Naoto in battle sounds very little like Naoto in regular speech. =_= It's a bit annoying. There's actually a wiki entry for the voices of P4, but you gotta be careful cause they melded it in with the chara descriptions and uh wow SPOILERS wheeeeee~ But since I'm so nice, Wiki says it's Wendee Lee. ... huh, wow, never would've guessed... (oh wait, still marked as citation needed)

Also wow, apparently the manga doesn't make MC4 as open and friendly seeming as he seems in the game--but more of the pessimistic loner type. Huh.

... I might have to make a special effort to see Hollow!Ichigo. I was just talking about Johnny playing roles that break his usual typecast--like Midorikawa, he has extremely limited range, so when he plays something really different, it's interesting to hear.

I REALLY loved the role breaking I had heard from him recently and I think I might like to hear what he does with Hollow!Ichigo.

(Just... well, I never watched the Japanese version either, but I can't really stick Johnny's voice to Ichigo. When I was listening to it, I kept going, "this doesn't... fit the character.")

Re: edited for clarity

[aruru.livejournal.com]

Ah, so I wasn't totally off base for confusing the two voices then, cool.

LOL, well, I'm still painfully behind (STILL in 5/1, hahaha! I'm farming for more items to sell to Daidara. I actually maxed out the Black Lamps, heh! XD), so I still won't be hearing Naoto for a good while - that's too bad that the voice acting isn't consistent. Is the character at least interesting? 'Cause damn, I still love the hat whenever I look at the design... XD

And I didn't realize that the Wiki had the cast list - I only looked up the general P4 entry (Which does spoil a... certain culprit's identity. Though it doesn't really matter - I already was somewhat spoiled due to the artbook's cutin images for the dude.). My Wiki-fu is weak. :(

Also, looking at Wendee Lee's previous roles... holy crap, I knew she's been around doing voice work for a long time, but still, she's really freaking prolific! :O *did like her voice as Faye, even if she didn't care much for Cowboy Bebop itself overall...*

The manga does WHAT to MC4? @_@ Man, that's totally NOT how he came across to me in these early stages of the game... now I'm worried that the manga version of P4 will be full of Fail... :(

Yeah... haha, I was admittedly kinda glossing over your entry on Johnny (Which doesn't really count as spoiling myself, as I had already spoiled myself on that certain character due to the artbook, so nyah! :P) at the same time I was writing my reply to you, hence why I made the comment on Hollow!Ichigo. Now that I think about it, the Bleach dub distorts Hollow!Ichigo's voice in a similar manner to how Atlus distorted the P4's casts' voices for their Shadow-selves, too.

How exactly do you think Johnny's voice doesn't fit the character? I mean, most of my knowledge of Bleach comes from the dub (Though I did read the manga up until when Ichigo and his friends first go to Soul Society to rescue Rukia before I switched to watching the anime, which started airing a little after the point I had left off in the manga.), so maybe I'm missing something? I'm curious. (Then again, lately I have been becoming more easily pleased/satisfied/tolerant with the quality of dub performances, maybe because they've improved so much from what we got in the past, so... *shrug*)

(And while we're speaking of Bleach, I can never seem to stop being amused by Ishida being voiced by the same dude who played Ken Ichijouji/chaos from Xenosaga, hee. XD)

Re: edited for clarity

[ruaki.livejournal.com]

Well, Naoto just sounds ... really weird in battle. Looking at the GameFAQs forums, I know I'm not the only one that thinks that.

Hahahaha, yeah, looking at Naoto and the passing reference they made to Kuzunohoa totally makes me wanna pick up Devil Summoner after I finish P4. I also realllllyyyy wanna make Raidou's cape/cloak for one of my dolls. *_*

Yeah, Wendee's been around for a long time, and I generally like her work.

Yeah, I kinda went O.o when I read the wiki entry about how the character is portrayed in the manga. Definitely not what I envisioned--he seems a bit more goofy and fun-loving, but maybe that's just the responses I went with in the game.

Well, they didn't distort Johnny's voice in P4, so it's REALLY FRICKIN' AMAZING. I mean... guh.... *gets gooey thinking about it*

Well, I only saw that one ep, but it just... doesn't fit my image of how Ichigo would sound. I admittedly really wanted to hear Ishida, but he wasn't in that ep... (I also left off where you left off in the manga... I just got a bit disgusted with the turn of events.)

I'm not saying he's a bad VA! Sure, Johnny's not one of my favorites and that's really due to his limited range, but it's like... you know. The situation where a voice just totally doesn't come off sounding the way you first thought it'd be.

Yuri from Vesperia actually took me by surprise first too! He's really deep sounding--his VA is Kanji's, although Troy Baker uses a different voice for Kanji (although you can hear Yuri in there... I suspect Yuri's voice is Troy's normal voice). But after a while, the voice Troy uses for Yuri totally fits and I vastly prefer it to the Japanese.

So it's probably more of the shock of "this doesn't fit my image of Ichigo." I'm sure if I watched more of Bleach, it'd probably work out for me.

... not that I would.

Caution: LOADS OF OT RAMBLING ahead! :O

[aruru.livejournal.com]

Raidou's cape/cloak thingy is awesome - whichever doll you pick to have wear it will be totally stylin'. :D

Yeah, but here's the thing - as far as I've gotten in the game, most if not all of MC4's dialogue choices don't sound at all like "pessimistic loner" choices at all, which is what weirds me out the most about that. O_o

Aww man, I really need to get further in the game in order to hear his voice... *wants to fangirl too, heh* XD

Ishida... just sounds like a slightly older (and non-Digimon Emperor/Kaiser) Ken, really, and while I do like that actor's voice, I don't think you're really missing out on much. :\

As for Bleach itself... LOL, well, while it's not terrible (I can think of other things I find genuinely bad - I'm looking at you, Code Geass... *and yet still watches that too, embarassingly enough!* ^^;; Not to mention you can just think to the bazillion harem anime out there, which are always more than enough proof that there is a lot of suck out there... :P), and it does still have its high points, it IS fairly cheesy shounen fare and I'm honestly still watching the series just because I want to find out how it ends (and hopefully it'll take a turn back to being as neat as it promised in the beginning?), plus I DO like the general concept of the series, as well as several of the characters - I admittedly have a hard-on bit of a thing for Renji - I think it's my love of hot anime redheads striking again, LOL.

Oh, and I also kinda have a hard-on for rather like Chad too, even though with his personality type he doesn't get to say/do much, especially now with the bazillion other characters the manga-ka added to the plot. I do still really like his overall design and the early chapters in which he originally got his powers where we got a glimpse into his relationship with his grandpa.

Orihime's kinda cute too with her slightly-spacey-yet-more-perceptive-than-you'd-think personality, though she never seems to get a chance to really shine when the opportunity comes.

And Ishida... he's okay, though I think I kinda liked him better when they were focusing more on him being a "dorky/akward badass" rather than him being kinda mopey and acting like he was "dead weight" when he CLEARLY still had his common sense/intelligence working for him. Plus the decision he made after finally recovering his powers in one of the recent eps was kinda WTF I THOUGHT YOU WERE GETTING OVER THAT DUDE, and I MISSED the ep where he might have explained why the hell he did that, so I dunno if Ichigo and the others gave him a good shaking-some-sense-into-him had some kinda of reaction to it. :P

Rukia's mostly okay enough too, 'cept she's still not getting to do much. I really want to see what she can do when she's truly recovered.

As for the Soul Society folks, I haven't really developed much attachment to anyone (other than Renji) yet, though I was sometimes entertained by that one squad... 11, I think? The one with the spiky-haired dude (Zaraki?) and the little pink-haired girl (Yachiru, I think.) - anyway, their back-and-forth (as well as that of their underlings) during Soul Society arc was kinda amusing.


And... uh, this REALLY deviated from the P4 discussion, haha? Oops. ^^;; And damn you for reminding me of Kanji - I really want to hear him now, since you so highly recommend Troy Baker as a voice actor! (And I really want to hear Yuri someday, too!)

Re: Caution: LOADS OF OT RAMBLING ahead! :O

[ruaki.livejournal.com]

Probably the new version of Tybalt...

Yeah... but I guess the author wanted to show him "growing"... the MC4 IS a city boy that moved to the country. But the author said the reason for MC4's loner-type is cause his parents are always moving around cause of their jobs, so MC4 gets jerked around too. So I could relate to that.

Kanji's just plain fucking fangirlable. I love that guy. He's so... so... awkward...

Well, my problem with Bleach is that... I was TOTALLY behind it at first. Then they did the Soul Society thing and it was just a huge turnoff. I don't like "rescue the girl storyline" and then adding in all the Shinigami characters was just too much for me, and then it just turned into Jump syndrome and I already had enough of that from other series. So yeah. Stopped reading.

Re: Caution: LOADS OF OT RAMBLING ahead! :O

[aruru.livejournal.com]

Ah... Tybalt was your first dolly, wasn't he? I bet he's happy that he's getting some attention again, LOL. Have you decided on what his new "look" will be yet? XD

Hmm... well, if the manga-ka came up with that kind of angle in regards to MC4, that DOES sound like it has decent potential - I mean, if the poor guy is being shuffled around that much in the author's concept of him, then yeah, most likely he doesn't want to get too attached to anyone he meets, as it'd just make things more painful for him. :( (I've never really had to move around much, as I've only lived in two different apartments within the same general area of the city I'm from, but I DID have to transfer once from elementary school, and I remember how anxious that made me, so I can sort of understand?)

Aaaaaaaaaaargh, don't remind me of how slow I'm playing! *WANTS TO MEET KANJI ALREADY, GODAMMIT* >O

Heh... well... yeah, admittedly, the whole Samurai-inspired Afterlife arc wasn't very stellar save for a few points here and there. I think its biggest offense was that the whole mission just DRAGGED ON AND ON - I think the fact that there was such a large cast being introduced was mostly to blame for that. In fact, I think that's the series' biggest offense in general - there's way more characters than the author apparently knows what to do with, so barely anyone gets proper attention. And if by "Jump Syndrome" you mean "degenerates into battle after battle to keep the reader going," then that, too.

That's what made me put down the Naruto manga and switch to the TV series as well, actually - I mean, I already get cable at home, so why invest an extra $8 on each manga volume when I can get those two (apparently mostly unharmed) series adaptations on Saturdays for "free" and spend the extra cash on something I'm much more interested in? *shrugs* Eh...

Re: Caution: LOADS OF OT RAMBLING ahead! :O

[ruaki.livejournal.com]

Well, I've already repainted him [hm, that link might have to be C&P'd...], I'm just waiting for his new wigs to come in to find him the right hair.

Just the character he's based off of doesn't apply any more, so I figured instead of selling/buying new dolls, I'll just remake him.

=_= I need to get him a new name though, cause I keep looking at it and going "that's not Tybalt..."

Hahahahaha, Kanji-kun's just... yeah. Seriously, I love the blunt way he talks sometimes--he always ends up saying what I'm thinking.

YES EXACTLY IT DRAGGED ON AND INTRODUCED WAYYY TOO MANY CHARACTERS (most of who I don't care about) and then put a female I thought had a potential to be really awesome in a fucking jail cell DOING NOTHING AND WAITING TO BE RESCUED... =_= Also, Ishida. He was my favorite. Then yeah. =_= So yeah, I just didn't like the Jump-esque direction the manga was going, so I gave up on it and turned my attention to other series.

Naruto ended up suffering Jump syndrome too..

FUNNY ENOUGH Gintama makes fun of Jump syndrome in ep.92. XD I lol'd through that entire portion cause it's so fucking true.

Re: Caution: LOADS OF OT RAMBLING ahead! :O

[aruru.livejournal.com]

I like the new paint job - the beauty marks, in particular, are a cute touch. :)

Didn't get a chance to play today (not even just to material-farm) either - had an appointment, plus mom needed me to run an errand for her, so... Kaaaaaaanjiiiiiii... *wants to play, dammit!* :(

Naruto... honestly, I think the only reason I'm still watching (and some nights I skip it, as it seems to just keep going at a crawl and apparently I don't miss out on much) is because I DO like Naruto himself when he's not being as much of a bonehead, and I also like the general concepts of a couple of the supporting cast. (Rock Lee, for example - I could really sympathize with his drive to be a great ninja despite his limitations, and his belief that, through hard work and a strong will, he can eventually match [or maybe even surpass in some cases] natural-born talent. Plus he's kinda cute in a doofy way, LOL.)

I think the series' problem with the supporting cast (and the main characters too, for that matter) is that they don't seem to really get to grow that much despite all the time and missions that seem to pass. And... yeah, in some of the newer eps, certain members of the ninja teams have gotten a chance to "teach" some of what they've learned to others going through similar issues, but just how many times do we need to see these lessons repeated before the plot actually advances, huh? And can we see the kids from the teams learning some new things about themselves too, maybe? I mean, people go through more than just one set of issues throughout their lives, after all... :\

And oh man, Gintama. I gotta sit myself down and see more of that soon! Especially if it keeps mocking everything AND itself (AND bold enough to make fun of its publishers!) like it's done so far, hahaha. XD

P.S:

[aruru.livejournal.com]

Oh, and a Merry Bah-Humbugmas to you, since it's way past midnight already here! :D