These are also probably going to be the shows I’ll be following all the way…

1) Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Brotherhood

Now THIS is awesome stuff. Seriously, if you only have time for one show this entire season, make it this one. Its been a really long time since I’ve been THIS impressed with a first episode. Animation quality was through the roof and peaked at the end with the Bradley scene. Awesome stuff that. Even if you’ve watched the first anime adaptation, this is a must watch.

While “again” by Yui, which is the OP, is undoubtedly good, what impressed me the most is the ED, Uso by SID.

Few EDs come close to hitting the theme and mood of the show and its main characters with such uncanny accuracy. Besides being an amazingly good song, it’s incredibly meaningful and sums up the promise the brothers made and their willpower to journey forth and get their bodies back.

Overall they did a really good job of reintroducing the show and I, for one, am hyped up to see more.

2) K-ON!

From the producers of Lucky Star… that’s enough reason for me to watch it LOL. Just kidding. So far, the show has quite a lot of potential. I won’t say the first episode was REALLY good but it was pretty decent enough. (and there were certainly some awesome moments – castanets LOL ) The show may not be for everyone though – if you HATE anything musical in an anime… than I advise you stay away.

OP and ED wise… it’s pretty subjective… but I prefer the OP. Actually I wasn’t really fond of either at the start but after a few listens, I started to like them both a lot more. In all honesty I feel that they are both pretty good.

Overall this is a must watch for me. It’ll definitely provide much needed comedy relief LOL.

3) Valkyria Chronicles

No, I haven’t had the opportunity to play through the game save for a few missions at my cousin’s house. Someday I may though, if Sony stops slacking off.

Either ways, it seems pretty decent so far… though it may end up as another Tales of Abyss anime -_-. I certainly hope not though!

I’m watching this cause my friend psyco-ed me too… and I like what I see so far from the first episode. She’s adament about me watching the show, claiming the storyline of the game was awesome. I’ve heard some good things about the game and I certainly trust her opinion enough. Hence I’m hoping for a decent ride XD.

OP’s pretty good. It’s Asu he no Kizuna by HIMEKA. Not EXCELLENT but pretty decent nonetheless. ED I don’t quite like though.

4) Tears to Tiara

Okay, I haven’t watched this yet, but from what my friends say, its a pretty awesome show. Great cast of talent here too. I’ll be watching it tonight… will update later…

AS A FINAL NOTE – I noticed that the shows this season have pretty good talent in them. Though top notch talent =/= awesome show, it certainly ups the ante a lot.

As a side note LOL @ Rie Kugimiya in Queens Blade. How the hell did they psyco her to VA in Queens Blade of all shows!? Either ways, hearing her act all slutty is both rather disturbing and entertaining at the same time LOL. *for note… I watched the CENSORED VERSION… *

What happened you might ask? 3 magic words – BIG PAY CUT.

So much for the high life, it’s back to the poverty cycle for me -_-. Don’t you just love it when your company cuts costs?

Either way, I can’t seem to adjust to my new shrunken amount of income, even though it’s still pretty decent considering these times. The only solution? Tuition of course! So if anyone needs tuition (esp Maths lol), they can come and find me…

Darn, if only there was a quick way to make cash. Well, at least I got even more time. (which I have spent furiously studying Japanese to channel my sorrows away)

Either way, some new announcements…

1) New JRPG – End of Eternity

As you probably already know, from youtube videos and crazy game announcements, the Japanese take their April fools pretty seriously. Amongest the ridiculous announcements came one rather suspiciously real one, of a new RPG by Tri Ace and Square Enix.

Admittedly the website looked pretty bogus (wth –> newrpg.jp?), but all us RPG fans had faith… and thankfully it was not for naught. The best part? It’s multi-platform too (tho not on the PC, sry). Looks like us console guys got another epic tale (hopefully) to look forward too.

Webbie: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/970/970964p1.html

2) More news on FF13

Read it here: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/970/970962p1.html

Hmm… now for my thoughts…

“the FFXIII battle system is based around the concept of fusing strategy and action — that is to say, adding the flash and speed of action to command-based battles.”

For some weird reason I think of FF7 and FF12 combined as the new battle system. Hmm… whether that will be a success or not remains to be seen though. I remain optimistic though.

“During battle, you control just one character. Your allies are controlled by AI. However, they react to the moves your character makes. The strategy here comes from figuring out how to connect with your allies and better draw out their abilities.”

Hmm I dunno about this… Recently all the supposedly “awesome” AIs have been really crappy. Tales of Vesperia’s was pretty good though. Star Ocean 4′s …. URGH…..

“At the end of each battle, your character’s HP will be totally recovered!” – and battle are going to be hard

This could be good or bad as well. Actually it reminds me of The Last Remnant. I’m not against hard games but they better balance it well… Games with a challenge are nice. Games which are downright nasty are NOT. *recalls the horror of SMT: Nocturne* – Though Nocturne was awesome, you might break a controller or two…

The features of the battle system are pretty cool. Kind of brings the game closer to Star Ocean’s bonus board and all.

“FFXIII will feature a new character development system, similar to how FFX featured the Sphere system and FFXII the License Board system.” & “Not everyone can use magic”

Oh this blows… ANYTHING BUT THE SPHERE SYSTEM. I hated that crappy, lousy excuse of a level up system. I’m not entirely against the license board though, but I’m certainly not a fan of it. I tend to like over leveling and going against optional bosses asap but the license board totally ruined my prospects -_-. I just like an element of freedom in my JRPGs where I can do what I want to and not be prodded down a fixed path. The “not everyone can use magic” part I can deal with but please… NO SPHERE SYSTEM!

Truth is, I write most of these posts at work (!!!!!) … and I don’t want to use their computer to download/upload the pictures.

I’m also thinking of getting around to changing the theme. Perhaps an EF theme or something? But of course this will be done over the coming weekend… hopefully…

The recent issue of PLAY magazine has some seriously awesome previews. God of War 3 is showcased… as well as the recently announced KINGDOM UNDER FIRE 2. I don’t know about you, but what they’re doing with Kingdom Under fire 2 is downright amazing. If they pull it off, it could potentially make every other game on a console so far look like child’s play. I’ll be uploading scans of those tonight (new all-in-one printer from IT fair XD) as well as giving me comments on what to expect (I have tried all the KUFs before).

*Side comment on IT fair – That was one HECK of a crowd. I could have sworn that they almost had to call a crack team of engineers to reinforce the suntec convention hall building support pillars.

Work issues kept getting in the way… as well as the issue of my side businesses (I prefer to think of them as such XD). Still, I could have afforded the time to post an article or two, but I guess fatigue and laziness got in the way, and I’m not afraid to admit it! Regardless, I’m back to regular posting again.

Before the anime and games and stuff… a little about what’s going on on my side.

Well, same life and all. Recently got a minor pay increment and I’m really grateful for that. My (rather lofty) aim for now is to shore up as much funds as possible, and hopefully to subsist on my side stuff and not touch the revenue from my job.

Also, I’m finally gearing up to take the official JLPT exam. (I wonder just how EXPENSIVE the exam fees are -_-”) Since the next exam’s going to be held around this coming December, I’m thinking of skipping level 4 and just going for the higher level 3, mainly because I’m not very keen on paying the exam fees twice. I’m also pretty sure that my Japanese is fairly up to scratch to take on that level too. Either ways, I guess I’ll let fate decide.

Hmm… besides that, I’ve recently came to the abrupt conclusion that my Ipod Touch wasn’t doing justice to my new Senny CX400 phones. Hence, I’m eyeing a Cowon S9, possibly the best PMP in the market as of now.

Honestly, you can’t find worse sound quality from an established brand than an Ipod, infamous for having NO amplifiers and music balancing. Practically every other player has an internal amp these days. Cowon’s players have the best sound quality and, hence, my decision to get one. Still, if you don’t really mind a lower sound quality in exchange for bragging rights and a snazzy interface, the Ipod is still the player of choice I guess. Still, I’ve tried out the Cowon S9 and interface aside; it owns the Ipod Touch in every other field that you can possibly fathom. Best of all, no more laggy iTunes XD.

Now to wait for the price to drop -_-.

Also, the recent wave of cheap 2^nd hand consoles online is tempting me to pick a PS3 up. Still, I haven’t been able to justify the buy, so I’ve refrained from making a purchase so far.

Hmm… I can’t think or anything else to say -_-”. Well, on to games and anime than…

1) Ar Tonelico (PS2)

Recently some unseen force has resulted in me playing Ar Tonelico, which was previously gathering dust in one of my piles of games. If anything, the music is simply amazing. Voice acting, while there are low moments, is generally exceptionally good and spot on. Well, this is probably to be expected of a game based on music, hymns and harmonics, but nevertheless, that doesn’t make it any less impressive.

This is especially true, given how my ears have been subjected to frequent torture from Star Ocean 4. OKAY, it’s decent enough, but shame on you Square Enix for not hiring better Voice Actors YET AGAIN.

Getting back to the game, its great and all… but the gameplay’s pretty boring and monotonous. Even so, those hymns are permanently staying on my Ipod XD. They are just THAT GOOD.

2) Dry Season for Games and upcoming E3 looks to be a pretty Amazing one

Well, I guess it’s that time of year for developers to prep for E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo). No significant new games are due for release for a couple of weeks from now, probably because everyone’s preparing to showcase their very best at E3. Do a quick Google and you’ll realize that this year’s E3 is going to be a pretty amazing one with many developers out in full force despite the gloomy economy. Already most of the floor space has been booked or reserved. Well, hope more JRPGs are announced…

Either ways… I still have a huge pile of games that I haven’t tried so I guess this is a blessing in a sense.

3) Clannad’s finally over…

…and as I predicted, we get the good ending. Clannad’s been a pretty amazing and emotional ride for those of you who have been following up on the series. Personally I’ll probably have to watch the whole series again as I skipped quite a few episodes.

Since I have yet to watch everything properly, I will refrain from inflating the show too much. However, what is clear is that Clannad is probably the BEST love romance show this year. Not even Toradora can match up to it. I’ll do a full review on both once I have (re)watched both.

4) Tower of Druaga ending soon

While I won’t say that Tower of Druaga had been a really good show or anything, it has definitely been entertaining enough despite having a few low moments. Overall, I would say the Tower of Druaga is a pretty decent show, with some awesome moments like the season 1 final episode fight and the twist after that (which was pretty much wth). I’m definitely looking forward to the ending and hoping that Fatina won’t get dumped off as a side character -_-.

5) Got to catch up on Gundam 00

The last episode just begged to be watched and so I did just that… and realized that I had been missing out on some awesome moments. I still think that they are making Setsuna too powerful though. This goes with Clannad on top of my “anime to catch up on” list.

6) Toradora’s ending… 1 more episode…

…and more stuff for me to catch up on…

7) Star Ocean 4 and Resident Evil 5

First Star Ocean 4…

Now, where to begin… It’s a pretty good game, though nothing to die over. High points are the awesome battle system, great graphics, stunning and huge environments (finally the planets actually look like huge worlds). Low points? I don’t need to point that out kay’. Get the hint? No? It’s the voice acting and inconsistently translated script.

A pretty good RPG, but not as good and polished as Tales of Vesperia, which still reigns as the best current-gen console RPG.

Now…

I’ve also played Resident Evil 5 a little and I love it. Where “IT” does NOT include the clumsy control scheme that they have retained from Resident Evil 4.

Why you ask? To make the console last of course! You see, developers will take advantage of the console’s full potential much slower this way, and this will mean that the console will last for a full 10 years.

You know, reading this reminds me of Disgaea and all the crazy crap that they say in the game. *thinks of the optional fight with Laharl in Disgaea 2 about how he wants to kill you to be the main character because the main character is invincible and always wins XD*

The irony and pure nonsense of it is pretty darn funny.

Well, at least it’s great publicity… though for all the wrong reasons XD.

Original article: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-10173656-17.htm

01 EVERGREEN
02 S-cape
03 AINOOTO (愛の音~English ver.~)
04 EVERGREEN ~instrumental~
05 S-cape ~instrumental~

EVERGREEN is a pretty awesome rockish-pop song and its moumoon’s second release.

Truth to be told, I never even knew that they existed till I sampled out this album recently. Well, let’s just say that I’m posting this as I was pretty impressed.

The vocals are spot on and the chorus is absolutely fantastic. Definitely a really memorable song, and very addictive to boot. Try it out and give me your comments XD.

I don’t think I should comment on AINOOTO though because I never heard the Japanese version of it. Even so, I’m willing to bet that I would definitely prefer the Japanese version more XD.

Especially if you accidentally screw up at work -_-”.

Nothing major, but still… *haiz*

Well, suffice it to say that some massive updates are well overdue.

I’ll mainly be covering 2 new music albums, a short write up on what songs (Jap of course) I find to be pretty addictive, two game OSTs, anime updates (Clannad – you know who’s going to go XD), game updates (Star Ocean 4) etc.

That’s quite a handful.

Pictures will be upped when I get home as well as any uploads.

Its combat oriented gameplay was amazingly compelling and pretty much ensured that there was never a dull moment in Dawn of War. The races were also well fleshed out and captured the Dawn of War spirit in the package of a RTS. Not to mention that they did a pretty decent job balancing the game, considering that there were a grand total of NINE different races after all the expansion packs were added.

While I was initially glad that they decided to try something new in integrating RPG elements into the game (I LOVE RPGS XD), and while it is indeed “innovative”, it sadly butchers the epic battles and grand scope that the original game had. It breaks my heart to see what they did to Dawn of War 2. This time, I really felt severely underwhelmed by what came packaged with the game.

Basically DOW 2 is now = Dawn Of War + Company Of Heroes – a load of stuff + minor RPG elements

Let’s see now…

1) 4 Races (No Chaos race), each with 9? Units (amazing variety here…)

2) 7 Multiplayer Maps (WOW, this is EPIC man!)

3) NO BASE BUILDING

4) Scaling DOWN

Need I say anything else?

I can overlook base building, maps and even the races. Hell I can overlook everything except one glaring fact: unit variety.

Honestly, if you make a game that doesn’t have base building and a whole bunch of other stuff, at least give players a decent variety of units to play around with and such. (AKA World in Conflict)

Is that too much to ask for?

Whatever I guess… If they want to dick around with their fan base, so be it. I guess we’ll have to wait for Starcraft 2 for a decent strategy game.

This is entirely my opinion. HOWEVER, RENT THE GAME BEFORE YOU ACTUALLY BUY IT. If you were expecting the next best thing in RTS, this IS NOT IT.

In all honesty, it’s good, but alas, disappointing. DON’T GET ME WRONG THOUGH, Star Ocean 4 is indeed a pretty good game, if the “proper” reviews I’ve read are anything to go by. Generally, Famitsu probably has the most balanced and accurate reviews of all the magazines and such.

REVIEWS

“The latest issue of Famitsu magazine in Japan comes with the second review (counting Famitsu 360‘s about a week or so ago) of Square Enix’s upcoming RPG, Star Ocean: The Last Hope. The verdict is a 34/40 with the scores 9, 9, 8, 8, the same score as Famitsu 360.”

In all honesty though, it would probably be 8-8.5/10 for the English version of it as the voice acting will probably leave a lot to be desired.

My friends who have the luxury of satellite connection speeds have also tried it out and found Star Ocean 4 to be pretty good so far.

I don’t think Game Informer is a good source for reviews (they gave Persona 4 a score of 8/10, which is probably the equivalent of committing treason or heresy LOL), but I’m pretty surprised that Star Ocean 4 got only 7/10 (2^nd opinion 7.75/10 though). It’s their opinion of course and I won’t question it.

Now the most shocking review of all is probably IGN‘s.

“But didn’t they give it 8/10? That’s a pretty fair score isn’t it?”

Indeed it is. BUT, just read the review itself. It’s utter garbage. Who the hell is this reviewer anyway? Honestly, it’s one of the worse reviews that I’ve EVER read. Completely nonsensical. Yes, I’m over exaggerating, but it really is BADDD. Read it for yourself and you’ll see what I mean.

CONCLUSION

BUT, overall, I was expecting something more from the last title of the beloved Star Ocean series after the third one nearly drove me insane with its confounded story. I wanted, no, expected, Square Enix to end it in grand fashion and to close the Star Ocean series with a final burst of glory. Unfortunately, they disappoint yet again.

It’s still good, but it, sadly, doesn’t hold a candle to instant hits like Persona 3 or the older Star Ocean 2 (during its time of course).

*Incidentally, I love Persona 3 more than 4 (crazy shocking storyline anyone?), though that’s just me XD*

It’s probably on par with Tales of Vesperia? (Yes, I love Vesperia) Maybe? Or hopefully just a little below that level.

All in all, it’s still going to be an awesome game, but don’t expect RPG nirvana.

Last Word: A lot of game reviewers really suck these days. Don’t bother too much with reviews. They only serve to give you a broad understanding of the game and all. Always trust yourself. Rent it, and if you like it, buy it. It’s that simple. Or *ahem* it XD.