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. :)