An Update Post

November 19, 2012 by awesomecurry 2 Comments

Preparing for university sucks, and I can’t wait for March when most of this shit is going to be over. Damn portfolio preparations. I could also do with a little less pride and bear with shittier school marks considering my first choice is a college with a average grade requirement of 65%, but parents want me to go into some program that will actually get me a job (like engineering!) and if I don’t apply for university, they are probably going to flip their shit and make what little left of my childhood into complete hell. I mean that figuratively, not Disagea’s Netherworld. Either way, I have all my painful courses this semester (full of projects and evaluations where I actually have to do things other than calculate on a piece of paper), and how I miss the time when I could just play games.

School is terrible, university/college will probably be much worse, and employment…well, I’ve gotta stop assuming that I’ll actually land myself a job once I get out of post-secondary education. Not with my non-existent people skills and motivation. Welp, since I’ve been angsting like hell over school and stuff, I haven’t been finishing many things.

Let’s see, games I recently played:

Tales of Destiny – decided to give some old school Tales a try, reviewed on OrgASG. It’s not bad for its age, but the localization was lazy as hell (removed all skits because Namco didn’t want to bother dubbing) and the battle system is very primitive. I like Rutee and Philia. My Tales heroine ranking probably goes something like Milla > Rutee > Tear >>>>>> Cheria = Shirley > Iria or whatever her name is from Innocence > Reala (subject to change as I progress on Destiny 2). Shirley gets some points for actually having something interesting happen to her.

Tales of Destiny 2 – the sequel to the above game, taking place 18 years later. I’m not enjoying it as much, despite the greatly improved battle system. Plot is slower-moving, characters aren’t as likeable as the first. Kyle is ridiculously annoying with his “I WANNA BE A HERO LIEK DADDY” speech, and Stahn had more idiot hero charm. Reala is…very, very boring so far. It doesn’t help that Tsunderes and Kuuderes and just generally cool types are my personal preference (as well as Pascal).

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask – Best Layton after Unwound Future in terms of plot and side characters. Puzzles were also fun and my type, and so were the mini-games besides the rabbit. It lasted me longer than usual too, since I bothered doing all the puzzles and stuff. I did everything except for the daily puzzles.

Professor Layton and the Last Specter – Decided to play after enjoying Miracle Mask (missed out when it released). Plot was lackluster in comparison, the types of puzzles didn’t appeal to me as much. I have yet to play London Life, the life-sim RPG included in the game. I’ll probably give that a spin one day.

Pokemon Black 2 – I think I’ve put nearly 90 hours into the game before taking a break for Virtue’s last Reward and Professor Layton. I’m trying to complete the Pokedex before graduation, but until March I won’t be playing in large chunks because this game sucked away my entire October and I don’t want that to happen to the remaining months I have for my portfolio/university apps.

Phantasy Star Portable – Oh look! Something actually from my to-play list! What can I say…it’s been sort of addicting and mindless fun so far, good for breaks and relaxation/stress-relieving. I hated the controls at first, but got used to them a bit. I still can’t completely like the game because I have to resort to the Claw position since some genius decided it was a good idea to stick camera controls on the d-pad and movement on the analogue nub. It almost reminds me of Warriors of the Lost Empire (bad game, would never touch again) in terms of uncomfortable controls, but it’s a less shitty game overall.

Kid Icarus: Uprising – This ended up being really fun, despite my general dislike for 3D shooters. I hate wonky camera controls, but the boss fights were fun and the aerial segments were amazing. No wonky camera controls, no running on ground. All you do is dodge and shoot, which is my kind of STG. I’m terrible at shooters so I only managed to do something like 3.6 Intensity for most stages, but it was still really fun. I don’t think I could ever manage 9.0 Intensity. The dialogue is amazing, the way it pokes fun at everything. My hat goes off for the localization team. Such a god-tier script.

My backlog is huge now, but I recently acquired Growlanser and Ragnarok Tactics. I can’t help it, it’s hard to ignore PSP RPG releases. I’ve gotta stop browsing 4chan’s /vg/ so much, it’s making me want to try even more games. I also got Astonishia Story for $3, and Chulip for $0.99. I-It’s okay, I’ll be forever alone in university with no social life, and too poor to buy new consoles, so I’ll be using my free time there to clear up my backlog. S-See? It’s all in preparation for my future!

I’m also totally excited for the next Kiseki game in September 2013. One reason to look forward to the start of university. Okay, time to clear some backlog before then. Wait, no, time to study and shit before then. Yeah.