Now *this* RPG really feels like my kind of RPG. I don’t have to worry about setting character attributes, the game provides alot of money with the bonus board lit up and from all the battles I jump into. Those two things bug me with some RPGs. Did others mean you put items in their shop for you to feel hopeless to purchase, or do they really think they’re making a korean grind mmo?

The battles I’ve had so far have been fairly easy and tends to get easier on the planet you’re staying at very quickly. It’s still very early in the game, so its definitely going to get more interesting later, but while its still easy breezy, I’m practicing on doing those blindsides! There’s still something about it I’m not getting down completely, though I think I will over time. What is it you exactly look for? You only have split second to react to the flashing guard indicator. Instead I’ve just been watching the monster itself for the moment its about to attack my character. That makes sense anyway right? Confusing tutorial o_o;

The voice acting is ok. The acting in the voice is good. It’s just the sound of some characters may be just too silly to bear. I’ve yet to see that though. From video’s I’ve seen online, I think the angel character will be the only one to bother me cause she might be so high ptiched sounding. Why can’t they just use a normal voice?

I feel I have to give graphics a rating here. I can’t rate anything else without having played through the whole thing. Mostly cause I heard a friend told me that another friend couldn’t stand the graphics, so I gotta say something here. I had the opportunity to play Enchanted Arms first before this and I still have to beat it so I can give it back to my college at work. To me it feels old, but I think Star Ocean beats it by a long shot, *most* of the time. Characters are fun to look at and really well detailed, more than you could really notice in battle. They could sometimes look like puppets for Thunderbirds - I don’t care for that though. I joke with my bother one some scenes, making right arm flap all around my head as if the string for it has malfunctioned. In one cut scene a close up of one of the monsters really surprised me. That big blue blob thing. A Gametailer review said that the maps sometimes were dull/bland, I think they’re ok, alot better than Enchanted Arms. Some places reminded me of the nice areas in Guild Wars. In the end, I’d give 7.5 or even 8 for graphics, cause its good, but not mind blowing.

I like that consoles encourages doing multi-player with someone next to you. Star Ocean is definitely not for that though. I feel that’s kind of unfortunate, cause the cut scenes are great and I’d like to watch them together with another person. Whenever I feel a cut scene coming up, I would tell whoever is closest to come watch. I think I’d be “hun fok” if I had a gamer girlfriend who would love watching as much as playing along… XD

I’ll say that this isn’t my full review and end it here. I’m gonna write more about Star Ocean when I feel like it ^^. You know, its a whole different perspective to know when a friend just burned the game to play while you bought it and really enjoy it. Not that I never realized this feeling would come, it doesn’t worry me much, but if Mahmud is reading this, he’s right, sometimes I just gotta be careful.

Anyway, there’s a whole ocean to explore! Calmus… engage!

I got the manual settings on my camera figured out I think. So I was finally able to take these pictures of Tomoyo! I’ve always felt it difficult to take clear close up shots of small things, but here I think I did pretty well. I made Tomoyo look HUGE!

The two pictures above are fairly nice I think, a warm feeling.  I haven’t made an entry about getting the Xbox 360, but there’s nothing to really say about it that no one has really heard. Though I’m sure no otaku takes photos of their figures in front of their Xbox. I’m just that more gamey.

I got Tomoyo mostly for the hair and obivously cause I like the character. Her figure definitely beat the others made for Clannad.  Notice this one is like, sorta warm, welcoming. While with some different camera settings and another angle, the one below is colder and maybe kind of evil looking.

I got my Haruhi nendoriod also in January also, which I should take photos of too I think. Though I feel kind of lazy to share on the net what everyone else has also done a million times over.

I feel that I have to keep track of my purchases coming up, cause I also want to get Star Ocean sometime in March. So what’s coming up?

• 03/31/2009 Shana Black Hair Ver. Figma Limited
• 06/30/2009 Mikku Miku Kagami Nendoroid PVC Figure
• 07/31/2009 Mizore Shirayuki Figure

Welp, I can’t really talk about the game itself that much, since I haven’t played much street fighter before. -given it a chance before, but always gave up on the same day. So I’m not a big Street Fighter fan, but as I talked about before, I really felt like getting good at some fighting game now. I’ve been mostly playing verus with my brother. We played alot of the HD Remix demo while I was waiting for the release of SFVI and so I think we got fairly good at it. My player is kicking my Ryu ass with Ken alot now, but its always a very close match. I have alot of fun with it!

So I’m wondering like how am I gonna get far in this game, its gonna take me a long time for sure. I want to unlock the other characters soon, for the sake of having a full roster available to choose from, but learning the other character’s moves doesn’t seem all that easy to me. The game is definitely challenging me. Surprisingly though I got all the movies down for Ryu and I’m starting with simple two move combos. However, I don’t usually think about it when playing against my brother. Speaking of which, the challenge modes, which should be the real training mode, is GREAT. Very helpful. I hope there’s more players like myself that suck ass so I can enjoy LIVE play better. I’m certainly waiting for more friends to get the game too. I especially am looking forward to playing the game with a developer friend in korea.

While everyone doesn’t really like the intro song to the Street Fighter IV penning, I really enjoy it. -thought it was really fitting and it mixed well with the cool fight music afterward.

Then going on to the graphics, I think they fantastic. With the game being fully animated in 3D now, I have sorta a better idea of what is coming at me. Otherwise the earlier Street Fighters felt like watching still pictures that you can’t react to, like those cheap black and white hand held games. Yep. Sue me. Mom somehow liked the HD Remix graphics better though. She said that Ken and Ryu looked more like real people, while SFIV looks like toys.

I’m looking forward to the free DLC coming later. Championship Mode expansion its called, with replays, a new points system and ultimately a better match making system. That’s good news I think. I mentioned I want to play with more other crappy players such as myself. Seeing replays is nice too. Reminds me of another game. CheapyD on the CAGcast mentioned how this version is missing a lobby where your friends could spectate games together. Hope that is coming back to Street Fighter IV.

Looks like I wrote alot already, so I’ll make it this a jump to read on more above, hehe. I’d like to hear more soon from what others are saying about Street Fighter, rather than reading game reviews which all say the same thing.

Gears of War 2 is definately get, especially after I realized that there is split screen play to it. It is definately gonna be alot of fun playing together with my brother. We never play anything together.. other than Priston Tale.

Then also, I feel that I need to get one fighting game. I got my eyes on Soul Calibur 4, but I’m not absolutely sure on it yet. It certainly looks good, but Street Fighter 4 looks just as kick ass to. They’re really different in style though.. however SC4 has the swords and other weapons that I’d like playing with.

Neither of these two would be a first to get though. Its gotta be an RPG. Make it Star Ocean!

Its not an anime where a handful of girls are surrounding one guy or the fate of which characters like who are destined to be together. All characters have multiple sides to them and continuously affect and change each other. What I couldn’t believe is how amazing this anime would be before starting to watch it. Its still going on and I hope it really keeps going for a very long run. Actually.. maybe there’s a way to find out how many episodes there are, but I’d rather not know how soon the end is coming. *hopes for 40+ episodes*

Annnnnyway. I figured I would slap together a pic of the next 5 figures I have lined up! Haruhi is already shipped and coming my way I think, then next would be Tomoyo, Shana,  Mikku Miku Kagami and finally Mizore! I put together this picture so I can happily wait for them to arrive ^^

Toradora has been really fun to watch, it’s really refreshing somehow. The characters have very different personalities from each other and even more different than those I’ve seen in other animes. I can’t say that much for an anime, but at this point I think I’m enjoying it even more than Clannad After Story. (Shocking.)

I felt the need to stop and blog about it after this episode, cause one of the last scenes just gave me a really nice feeling..

Her character didn’t really play a significant role in the anime, so I’m kinda hoping that will be a little different in the manga. At the very least though, she had an episode focused on her, which made her a little more believable. (Or as believable a story about a youkai school can get!)

I came to realize that the person doing the voice acting for Mizore, Rie Kugimiya, who also did the voice of Shana! That’s kinda cool I think. So somehow I think I would like to see more with her voice talenet in it. That has lead me to just start watching Toradora!. I wouldn’t have bothered with this anime if not for this.

At the end of this Rosario + Vampire Capu2 though I felt almost a little sad that the fun was over. I always get sad at the end of an anime, even if its a happy ending, cause I would think that I may miss the characters. Especially the way Moka-san was described to be an illusion and Tsukune fought to bring her back. It makes me want to get the figure for Moka to feel like the story doesn’t end. o_O *Looks at the Moka’s PVC figure again* Eh, on second thought, its still not as good looking as Mizore.

I was kinda disappointed with the first series of Rosario + Vampire though. It seemed somehow that the second half of the series become a slideshow. Did the artists get really lazy?! It was really hard to watch and so I marathoned though it. I felt alot better watching the second season which was more animated. The story was, just not there, but it was still really fun to watch!