All kinds of nerdery! orz
→ Jesus, would you look at the list of issues that are part of Dark Reign. How the hell is anyone supposed to keep track of that?
→ Okay, IGN, you go to hell for getting my hopes up like that. I mean, I would be first in line to get that game, but I don't really think it'll happen. Everyone who plays it loved it, but actually getting people to play it seemed like a near-impossible task. T___T
→ So, I watched this review of Arkham Asylum and a;sdlkfjaslkdjaslk oh my god my desire to play this game just suddenly ramped up to, like, a thousand. It looks amazing and all the different things you can do and it looks like they finally got a comics video game right, holy crap.
→ O-omg. I need this Layton: London Life RPG like you wouldn't believe. It's an extra from the fourth game, we're only JUST NOW finally getting the second game two years after the original, so at that rate, we wouldn't see this one until four years from now, which just makes it super painful. Because apparently it's about 100 hours long and omfg I want it so bad.
→ *shrieks* OMG. SECOND KOSHONIN SEASON. Which in in addition to the movie that's coming out later, holy shit, it really is like Japan is trying to reel me back in with the awesome. I assume no Shirota Yuu, which makes me sadface really hard because Mariya/Usagi was so goddamned hot, but I will live. I will totally live with more of this.
→ As you've noticed, my journal has kind of been taken over by comic blogging lately. Psuedo-apologies for that, but it has been years since I read anything, which means I have a lot of backlog to go through. But three or four things are kind of coming on my fannish horizon and I'm going to talk about vague plans of what I want to accomplish fannish-wise and I'm sure it will be super interesting to people other than myself!
....yeah, this is going to be boring for everyone but me, but I wanted to write it down somewhere.
First up is my outline of comics that I've been reading/want to read until I catch up. As much as Noel makes fun of me for it, I've been enjoying the various Marvel events that have been going on, so I want to read in this general order:
* - Secret Invasion (STATUS: 30% complete)
* - Manifest Destiny (STATUS: 70% complete)
* - War of Kings (STATUS: 0% complete)
* - Dark Reign (STATUS: 0% complete)
* - Utopia (STATUS: 0% complete)
Other books to catch up on, Marvel-wise:
* - Avengers - The Initiatve (STATUS: 20 issues to go)
* - Mighty Avengers (STATUS: 9 issues to go)
* - Runaways (STATUS: 20 issues to go)
* - X-Men First Class (STATUS: 20 issues to go)
* - Young Avengers (STATUS: ...idek)
As for DC, I'm pretty current with everything except for:
* - Batman - Last Rites (STATUS: 10 issues to go)
* - Batman - Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul (STATUS: 10 issues to go)
* - Tiny Titans (STATUS: 15 issues to go)
Anything else:
* - Y: The Last Man reread/finish up (STATUS: ....yeah, idk)
I'm probably missing stuff? Idk anymore.
After that, I'll be mostly caught up (unless I decide to start reading New Krypton or that Codename: Patriot crap over in the Superman family or I decide to catch up on Flash or Noel makes me properly read Young Justice finally) and will concentrate more on games, because there are a bunch that are coming out or I'm in the middle of playing.
Games that I will be focusing on:
* - Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (STATUS: 80% complete, assuming there's no 20 hours of level grinding necessary to get Zodiark)
* - Chrono Trigger (STATUS: 2 hours in, given or take)
* - Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (STATUS: 15 minutes in, four puzzles solved)
* - Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (STATUS: Clawing at the walls for its release!)
* - Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core (STATUS: Tutorial missions finished, am about to start the real game)
* - Dissidia: Final Fantasy (STATUS: HOPE IT WILL BE HERE SOON)
Just about all my other games (the FFXII replay, finishing up ToA, finally playing Re:KH:CoM or Baroque, any of the various GameCube games, Tales of Vesperia, Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, etc.) are kind of on hold at the moment, since the DS and the PSP are where my love is at right now.
Third is that the new TV season is going to start soon. As always, I have a long list of shows that I want to watch (24, CSI, House, The Mentalist, LOST, Supernatural, Dexter, Chuck, NCIS, the NCIS spin-off, Fringe, etc.) when they come back, but I also have a lot of summer shows to catch up on (Warehouse 13, Mental, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Defying Gravity, Hung, Nurse Jackie, etc.) that are going to take a lot of time to get watched. I sort of dread even thinking about it because I don't know where I'm going to find the time.
Fourth! New drama season is around the corner and it's shaping up to be AMAZING. What I'm already planning to watch:
* - Tokyo DOGS (Oguri Shun, Mizushima Hiro, awesome sounding plot)
* - Untouchable (Nakama Yukie, Kaname Jun, Satou Tomohito, I would watch this cast watch paint dry, that's how hot they are)
* - Liar Game season 2 (ads;lfkjaslkjs lasdl;asjd omg)
* - My Girl (AIBA DRAMA OMG YAY)
* - is this when the Koshonin 2 series is going to be as well?
That's five (four?) stellar dramas right there. So that's going to be a big chunk of my time and I'm hoping that Arashi fandom will have stopped irritating me long enough that I can get back into things. (I seriously can't tell you how much I am getting frustrated by the lack of organization and the million hoops you have to jump through to sign up for YET ANOTHER COMM is kind of really killing all my enthusiasm for this fandom.)
Because I enjoy it so so much, but between the terribly quiet feel to the fandom lately and my constant stream of swears at the big comms, I've felt kind of distanced from things. D:
Anyway, that's where I expect my journal/fannish energies will be going to for the next few months. Plz to be filtering me on your flist accordingly.
Christ, I hope most of you skipped that. Okay, so I didn't get anything major done, but I accomplished a little bit of several different things. Almost all of them can be blamed on other people. :|b
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core:
Up to: ....not even an hour in, but just up to where you get your first save point in the ShinRa HQ.
First impressions: Holy shit, this game is gorgeous. I knew it would be pretty, I'd seen the opening sequence and I knew the CG looked fantastic, but it didn't really prepare me for seeing it on the actual PSP and looking just downright amazing. Zack is gorgeous, the shot of the ShinRa mako reactor, that famous shot from the opening of FFVII, is just stunningly recreated here and I've watched it two or three times just because it's so beautiful.
The first time I tried to play this game, I sucked at it. I was literally just keymashing my way and not really getting what I was doing. To be fair, I wasn't actually trying to figure it out, I just wanted to fiddle with it for five minutes before I turned it off without saving, it wasn't a real first attempt at the game. But it did clue me in to how the L and R buttons shifted what commands I was going through, how to use a potion versus how to attack versus how to use a spell, etc.
So, this time I was actually able to mow through those "Wutai troops in disguise" pretty easily! o/ And then BIG GIANT MONSTER CAME OUT OF NOWHERE AAAHHHH DO NOT WANT DO NOT WANT except I think I did okay once I figured out how to hit it with Firaga and Thundaga. I got a better sense of dodging/blocking as well!
BUT THEN THEY TOOK MY MATERIA AWAY. D: I'm not precisely sure how to get new ones, I'm kind of wary of that, how this game will work with them, how I'll get them, how I'll use them, etc. I'm also wary of that little counter thing in the upper corner, if I'm supposed to be doing something specific with it or just letting it go, but... I figure that'll come in time? I hope. ~_~
Mostly game is so pretty for now and OMFG ZAAAAACK. Not only is he gorgeous, but he's adorable, too. Angeal tosses that line about needing his own dreams or whatever over his shoulder after the simulation was done and Zack's face omg. He tilts his head to the side and is like, "Huh?" IT WAS SO ADORABLE I COULD HARDLY STAND IT.
Same for when Angeal said that he was going to recommend Zack for First and Zack just started squeeing, I swear to god. It was the greatest thing just about EVAR. The running over to hug Angeal and tell him how much he loved him was pretty hilarious, too. But nothing beats Zack's delight in that first second as he looks like he's about to explode from squee.
Other favorite moment? My literal :D :D :D :D :D face as Sephiroth showed up in the simulation.
I know, I'm a total fangirl for him, SHUT UP.
Game is super shiny so far! And, man, the glossy finish on the PSP makes it get dirty FAST.
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box:
Up to: 15 minutes in, four puzzles solved. Surprisingly, I still have many thoughts!
I wish I had a gif of someone expressing pure, unadulterated SQUEE to properly express my joy at finally getting to play this game. I can't even tell you how much joy this game gives me, I don't think I could properly put it into words just why I like it so much.
It's just so... charming and perfectly done and is everything it's attempting to be. Even in the first fifteen minutes, already you have a charming little plot unfolding with this mysterious box that is rumored to kill anyone who opens it, including the Professor's mentor, Dr. Shrader. (Or something like that.) It's the same hilarity of having to solve puzzles at the most inappropriate times--hey, I think my mentor might be dead on the floor of his apartment, locked inside there and I have this really terrible feeling about him... this reminds me of a puzzle! I just. *flaps hands* It shouldn't be great, but it kind of is.
It's the little touches of humor or adorableness along the way, too. Luke bouncing on the train car seat because it was such a luxurious room! Seeing detective Chelmly show up again and Luke literally tries to TAKE HIS FACE OFF and I can't even tell you how hard I was laughing at that whole scene.
I've been surpried at how many cut scenes and dialogue scenes there have been already. I know it's the beginning of the game and you open with a lot of them before they throw you into all the puzzles to solve, but it's really lended a great air to the game. I love how much like a quaint little movie this feels like, how much I really love the plots of these games, just as much as I love solving the puzzles.
....I do grant that that key puzzle (003) was kind of obnoxious, though.
I love that Layton is kind of totally obnoxious to Chelmly, implying that everything is soooo easy to see, why it's as plain as the nose on your face! when Chelmly has overlooked something. Not that Chelmly isn't obnoxious right back, which, in its own way, was kind of hilarious, too.
There was one moment with Chelmly that had me kind of "....". He looked at Layton and Luke, saying, oh, this is your "apprentice", hm? EYEBROW RAISE SO HARD, GAME. Just... how else were we supposed to interpret the quotes around the word and the tone of voice Chelmly used? That's... what? What?
So far, my only complaint is that there is NOT ENOUGH FLORA, DAMMIT. I loved her! I wanted more of her in this game! She was only barely in one of the opening movies and I haven't seen her since, I don't think she's even been mentioned. Hell, she wasn't really even in the same scene with them, so it felt like that bit could have been added afterwards? It's not like they said her name or anything.
I just want more of Layton and his kids, okay, game? :<
Mouse Guard:
Up to: First series, the Fall of 1152, all issues plus the epilogue, minor bits from the first issue of Winter of 1152.
Noel's been after me to read this for awhile and so I finally sat down with it and a;sldkfjalsjkslj oh my god it really is just super adorable. I love that it's such a light read, yet it has all this really amazing background world in it, I love how much thought the author had clearly put into this and how much time he'd taken with mouse culture and what kind of society would evolve.
I mean, it's still a fantasy story, but it's so cute to see little things like their weapons sometimes being needles or hooks, in addition to more traditional swords and daggers. It's so cute to see the beautiful artwork in the background that depicts their homes and the really old-world country feel to everything.
It's a really light, easy read, I went through it at twice my usual speed because there's not a whole lot of dialogue and there aren't that many panels to it, but that works in its favor. The story is just as long as it needs to be, it never felt dragged out or bogged down anywhere. Yet you still managed to get a sense of the characters and maybe even kind of ship some of the mice. Seriously, it's kind of hard not to ship Kenzie/Saxon after Gwendolyn says they're two of her best mouse guards, that she assigns people together who compliment each other, but almost never separates those two.
Translation? Yeah, totally married. Which is really, really cute!
I loved Gwendolyn (the captain of the mouse guard) a whole hell of a lot, too. I love how totally hardcore she was in the final fight against the fake Black Axe, how she refused to back down or to kill him afterwards, knowing he would only become a martyr that way. Instead, she holds on to her city and even recognizes that there was some truth to their uprising, even if they went about it completely wrong.
For such a simple little story, there was some surprisingly complex thought put into things.
Plus, omg. The scene in the first issue where Lieam is left behind as a guard while Saxon and Kenzie go check things out and a snake shows up. They come back to find Lieam is halfway down the snake's throat, but his sword is thrust up through its head, killing it. They turn around and come back to find him in a snake! They can't leave him alone for even a minute, clearly. :|
I just. Lolled so hard.
The whole thing is sooooooooo cute and soooooooo adorable. It's really kind of amazing the tone this thing takes, because it could have so easily gone off the rails. The mice are really cute, yet they can be intense when they need to be. It balances an atmosphere between cozy yet completely epic adventure. They look like real mice, all the details look like you could almost see these things happening, if only mice could talk and build their own little complex societies, right down to houses for themselves or little libraries with little step ladders or little forges to make little weapons.
They look like real mice, yet so much emotion manages to come through, you can see so much on their little faces. The use of an almost rough sort of style works wonderfully to capture the warm feel of everything, the beautiful scenery in the background, the leaves that are gorgeous to look at, the little carved out hollows in trees or little wooden carts, all of it is beautiful.
The second series (Winter 1152) seems to be a bit more complex with the art, the panels get a little busier, which I actually really like, I think it's just Petersen's art getting better, but the first one's art is kind of just right for the story it wanted to tell.
There's something really captivating about this series, something that really just caught me up in it in the way that all my favorite fantasy writing does. I almost felt like a kid again reading this, that little bit of wonder at the whimsy and adventure of it all, while still not dumbing it down for kids. Hell, a mouse dies rather horrifically (but by no means terribly graphic, it was just a really wrenching moment) and yet it doesn't lose that magic it has.
I was reading a review and I think one put it best as: It's a children's book for adults. Sure, I could see kids reading this, but I think adults will get more out of it than most kids these days. It's hard to appreciate beautiful, delicate artwork like this when you're a kid, but it's great for older people. I recommend it so hard and I'm looking forward to reading Winter of 1152.
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings:
Up to: Finished chapter 8, about halfway through the missions you get when you finish 8-4. Have not started chapter 9 yet.
I knew this game was tying everything together really nicely. I knew that it would continue to do so. And yet I'm still impressed and kind of blown away just a little bit by how smartly everything tied together after the revelations of that final fight against the Judge of Wings/Mydia. The revelations of her connections to the Cache of Glabados and Lemures was so much better than I'd anticipated, so much more natural-feeling to the FFXII world than I expected.
I'm a little unclear on how exactly this entire race of Feol Viera became more than just a handful, how did the original children of Feolthanos have more children? ....with each other? With humes? Like, who was Mydia's father, since we see her flashbacks with her mother, who was already a Feol Viera, I believe?
I loved the revelation that they were exiled from the original Viera, that they didn't have wings, so they couldn't fly up to Lemures with Feolthanos, that he left them the Cache of Glabados and the Galbana so that they could eventually join him, which explains where the ship came from and why this all started when they took the crystals from the Cache. Hey, an actual reason for that ship coming down to Ivalice and why everything started with the original mission!
And I love that the story is all about love that got twisted along the way. Feolthanos loved his children, but over time it became corrupt and turned evil. Mydia was desperate for Feolthanos' love, but his power overtook her and corrupted her, which makes her slaughter the rest of her race so that they can't be used like she's being used.
I love that it all comes back to the Occuria once again. That Feolthanos took the aegyl up to Lemures to escape their machinations, but couldn't let go of the lingering anger and hate for the Occuria for driving them from their home. That the events of FFXII at the Pharos Lighthouse and the Sun Cryst were what took down the barrier around Lemures and set all this in action.
I love that, in wanting to rebel against the Occuria, Feolthanos becomes almost exactly what they are--stealing the anima of the Aegyl in order to make them easier to control and used it to make himself even stronger. I love that it was the loss of Velis that set Mydia off on this path. (And, man, this is yet another example of a Hume/Viera relationship, the games really seem to love those.) I love that both she and Feolthanos were villains out of a twisted emotion that was once originally something good.
I love that that fits so well with the themes of FFXII and its final villain as well.
Oh, yeah, and. When Larsa has something to give Vaan and he says, oh, is it more potions? I LOLLED SO HARD. They were totally making fun of Larsa's endless bag of potions, which was seriously hilarious.
As far as gameplay goes, I know the NA version is a lot more difficult than the original Japanese game, but aaauuughh, I'm 34 hours in and nobody is above level 48. D: I've been doing fine (well, better than fine, really) with all the missions and stuff, I don't have trouble getting through most of them, but I'm not sure I want to put another 30 hours into this game just to get everyone up to level 99 so I can get Zodiark.
For the first time in awhile, I'm seriously considering just skipping that sidequest. .___. Especially since I have about four other games that are kind of really pressing right now. orz
→ Okay, IGN, you go to hell for getting my hopes up like that. I mean, I would be first in line to get that game, but I don't really think it'll happen. Everyone who plays it loved it, but actually getting people to play it seemed like a near-impossible task. T___T
→ So, I watched this review of Arkham Asylum and a;sdlkfjaslkdjaslk oh my god my desire to play this game just suddenly ramped up to, like, a thousand. It looks amazing and all the different things you can do and it looks like they finally got a comics video game right, holy crap.
→ O-omg. I need this Layton: London Life RPG like you wouldn't believe. It's an extra from the fourth game, we're only JUST NOW finally getting the second game two years after the original, so at that rate, we wouldn't see this one until four years from now, which just makes it super painful. Because apparently it's about 100 hours long and omfg I want it so bad.
→ *shrieks* OMG. SECOND KOSHONIN SEASON. Which in in addition to the movie that's coming out later, holy shit, it really is like Japan is trying to reel me back in with the awesome. I assume no Shirota Yuu, which makes me sadface really hard because Mariya/Usagi was so goddamned hot, but I will live. I will totally live with more of this.
→ As you've noticed, my journal has kind of been taken over by comic blogging lately. Psuedo-apologies for that, but it has been years since I read anything, which means I have a lot of backlog to go through. But three or four things are kind of coming on my fannish horizon and I'm going to talk about vague plans of what I want to accomplish fannish-wise and I'm sure it will be super interesting to people other than myself!
....yeah, this is going to be boring for everyone but me, but I wanted to write it down somewhere.
First up is my outline of comics that I've been reading/want to read until I catch up. As much as Noel makes fun of me for it, I've been enjoying the various Marvel events that have been going on, so I want to read in this general order:
* - Secret Invasion (STATUS: 30% complete)
* - Manifest Destiny (STATUS: 70% complete)
* - War of Kings (STATUS: 0% complete)
* - Dark Reign (STATUS: 0% complete)
* - Utopia (STATUS: 0% complete)
Other books to catch up on, Marvel-wise:
* - Avengers - The Initiatve (STATUS: 20 issues to go)
* - Mighty Avengers (STATUS: 9 issues to go)
* - Runaways (STATUS: 20 issues to go)
* - X-Men First Class (STATUS: 20 issues to go)
* - Young Avengers (STATUS: ...idek)
As for DC, I'm pretty current with everything except for:
* - Batman - Last Rites (STATUS: 10 issues to go)
* - Batman - Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul (STATUS: 10 issues to go)
* - Tiny Titans (STATUS: 15 issues to go)
Anything else:
* - Y: The Last Man reread/finish up (STATUS: ....yeah, idk)
I'm probably missing stuff? Idk anymore.
After that, I'll be mostly caught up (unless I decide to start reading New Krypton or that Codename: Patriot crap over in the Superman family or I decide to catch up on Flash or Noel makes me properly read Young Justice finally) and will concentrate more on games, because there are a bunch that are coming out or I'm in the middle of playing.
Games that I will be focusing on:
* - Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (STATUS: 80% complete, assuming there's no 20 hours of level grinding necessary to get Zodiark)
* - Chrono Trigger (STATUS: 2 hours in, given or take)
* - Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (STATUS: 15 minutes in, four puzzles solved)
* - Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (STATUS: Clawing at the walls for its release!)
* - Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core (STATUS: Tutorial missions finished, am about to start the real game)
* - Dissidia: Final Fantasy (STATUS: HOPE IT WILL BE HERE SOON)
Just about all my other games (the FFXII replay, finishing up ToA, finally playing Re:KH:CoM or Baroque, any of the various GameCube games, Tales of Vesperia, Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, etc.) are kind of on hold at the moment, since the DS and the PSP are where my love is at right now.
Third is that the new TV season is going to start soon. As always, I have a long list of shows that I want to watch (24, CSI, House, The Mentalist, LOST, Supernatural, Dexter, Chuck, NCIS, the NCIS spin-off, Fringe, etc.) when they come back, but I also have a lot of summer shows to catch up on (Warehouse 13, Mental, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Defying Gravity, Hung, Nurse Jackie, etc.) that are going to take a lot of time to get watched. I sort of dread even thinking about it because I don't know where I'm going to find the time.
Fourth! New drama season is around the corner and it's shaping up to be AMAZING. What I'm already planning to watch:
* - Tokyo DOGS (Oguri Shun, Mizushima Hiro, awesome sounding plot)
* - Untouchable (Nakama Yukie, Kaname Jun, Satou Tomohito, I would watch this cast watch paint dry, that's how hot they are)
* - Liar Game season 2 (ads;lfkjaslkjs lasdl;asjd omg)
* - My Girl (AIBA DRAMA OMG YAY)
* - is this when the Koshonin 2 series is going to be as well?
That's five (four?) stellar dramas right there. So that's going to be a big chunk of my time and I'm hoping that Arashi fandom will have stopped irritating me long enough that I can get back into things. (I seriously can't tell you how much I am getting frustrated by the lack of organization and the million hoops you have to jump through to sign up for YET ANOTHER COMM is kind of really killing all my enthusiasm for this fandom.)
Because I enjoy it so so much, but between the terribly quiet feel to the fandom lately and my constant stream of swears at the big comms, I've felt kind of distanced from things. D:
Anyway, that's where I expect my journal/fannish energies will be going to for the next few months. Plz to be filtering me on your flist accordingly.
Christ, I hope most of you skipped that. Okay, so I didn't get anything major done, but I accomplished a little bit of several different things. Almost all of them can be blamed on other people. :|b
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core:
Up to: ....not even an hour in, but just up to where you get your first save point in the ShinRa HQ.
First impressions: Holy shit, this game is gorgeous. I knew it would be pretty, I'd seen the opening sequence and I knew the CG looked fantastic, but it didn't really prepare me for seeing it on the actual PSP and looking just downright amazing. Zack is gorgeous, the shot of the ShinRa mako reactor, that famous shot from the opening of FFVII, is just stunningly recreated here and I've watched it two or three times just because it's so beautiful.
The first time I tried to play this game, I sucked at it. I was literally just keymashing my way and not really getting what I was doing. To be fair, I wasn't actually trying to figure it out, I just wanted to fiddle with it for five minutes before I turned it off without saving, it wasn't a real first attempt at the game. But it did clue me in to how the L and R buttons shifted what commands I was going through, how to use a potion versus how to attack versus how to use a spell, etc.
So, this time I was actually able to mow through those "Wutai troops in disguise" pretty easily! o/ And then BIG GIANT MONSTER CAME OUT OF NOWHERE AAAHHHH DO NOT WANT DO NOT WANT except I think I did okay once I figured out how to hit it with Firaga and Thundaga. I got a better sense of dodging/blocking as well!
BUT THEN THEY TOOK MY MATERIA AWAY. D: I'm not precisely sure how to get new ones, I'm kind of wary of that, how this game will work with them, how I'll get them, how I'll use them, etc. I'm also wary of that little counter thing in the upper corner, if I'm supposed to be doing something specific with it or just letting it go, but... I figure that'll come in time? I hope. ~_~
Mostly game is so pretty for now and OMFG ZAAAAACK. Not only is he gorgeous, but he's adorable, too. Angeal tosses that line about needing his own dreams or whatever over his shoulder after the simulation was done and Zack's face omg. He tilts his head to the side and is like, "Huh?" IT WAS SO ADORABLE I COULD HARDLY STAND IT.
Same for when Angeal said that he was going to recommend Zack for First and Zack just started squeeing, I swear to god. It was the greatest thing just about EVAR. The running over to hug Angeal and tell him how much he loved him was pretty hilarious, too. But nothing beats Zack's delight in that first second as he looks like he's about to explode from squee.
Other favorite moment? My literal :D :D :D :D :D face as Sephiroth showed up in the simulation.
I know, I'm a total fangirl for him, SHUT UP.
Game is super shiny so far! And, man, the glossy finish on the PSP makes it get dirty FAST.
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box:
Up to: 15 minutes in, four puzzles solved. Surprisingly, I still have many thoughts!
I wish I had a gif of someone expressing pure, unadulterated SQUEE to properly express my joy at finally getting to play this game. I can't even tell you how much joy this game gives me, I don't think I could properly put it into words just why I like it so much.
It's just so... charming and perfectly done and is everything it's attempting to be. Even in the first fifteen minutes, already you have a charming little plot unfolding with this mysterious box that is rumored to kill anyone who opens it, including the Professor's mentor, Dr. Shrader. (Or something like that.) It's the same hilarity of having to solve puzzles at the most inappropriate times--hey, I think my mentor might be dead on the floor of his apartment, locked inside there and I have this really terrible feeling about him... this reminds me of a puzzle! I just. *flaps hands* It shouldn't be great, but it kind of is.
It's the little touches of humor or adorableness along the way, too. Luke bouncing on the train car seat because it was such a luxurious room! Seeing detective Chelmly show up again and Luke literally tries to TAKE HIS FACE OFF and I can't even tell you how hard I was laughing at that whole scene.
I've been surpried at how many cut scenes and dialogue scenes there have been already. I know it's the beginning of the game and you open with a lot of them before they throw you into all the puzzles to solve, but it's really lended a great air to the game. I love how much like a quaint little movie this feels like, how much I really love the plots of these games, just as much as I love solving the puzzles.
....I do grant that that key puzzle (003) was kind of obnoxious, though.
I love that Layton is kind of totally obnoxious to Chelmly, implying that everything is soooo easy to see, why it's as plain as the nose on your face! when Chelmly has overlooked something. Not that Chelmly isn't obnoxious right back, which, in its own way, was kind of hilarious, too.
There was one moment with Chelmly that had me kind of "....". He looked at Layton and Luke, saying, oh, this is your "apprentice", hm? EYEBROW RAISE SO HARD, GAME. Just... how else were we supposed to interpret the quotes around the word and the tone of voice Chelmly used? That's... what? What?
So far, my only complaint is that there is NOT ENOUGH FLORA, DAMMIT. I loved her! I wanted more of her in this game! She was only barely in one of the opening movies and I haven't seen her since, I don't think she's even been mentioned. Hell, she wasn't really even in the same scene with them, so it felt like that bit could have been added afterwards? It's not like they said her name or anything.
I just want more of Layton and his kids, okay, game? :<
Mouse Guard:
Up to: First series, the Fall of 1152, all issues plus the epilogue, minor bits from the first issue of Winter of 1152.
Noel's been after me to read this for awhile and so I finally sat down with it and a;sldkfjalsjkslj oh my god it really is just super adorable. I love that it's such a light read, yet it has all this really amazing background world in it, I love how much thought the author had clearly put into this and how much time he'd taken with mouse culture and what kind of society would evolve.
I mean, it's still a fantasy story, but it's so cute to see little things like their weapons sometimes being needles or hooks, in addition to more traditional swords and daggers. It's so cute to see the beautiful artwork in the background that depicts their homes and the really old-world country feel to everything.
It's a really light, easy read, I went through it at twice my usual speed because there's not a whole lot of dialogue and there aren't that many panels to it, but that works in its favor. The story is just as long as it needs to be, it never felt dragged out or bogged down anywhere. Yet you still managed to get a sense of the characters and maybe even kind of ship some of the mice. Seriously, it's kind of hard not to ship Kenzie/Saxon after Gwendolyn says they're two of her best mouse guards, that she assigns people together who compliment each other, but almost never separates those two.
Translation? Yeah, totally married. Which is really, really cute!
I loved Gwendolyn (the captain of the mouse guard) a whole hell of a lot, too. I love how totally hardcore she was in the final fight against the fake Black Axe, how she refused to back down or to kill him afterwards, knowing he would only become a martyr that way. Instead, she holds on to her city and even recognizes that there was some truth to their uprising, even if they went about it completely wrong.
For such a simple little story, there was some surprisingly complex thought put into things.
Plus, omg. The scene in the first issue where Lieam is left behind as a guard while Saxon and Kenzie go check things out and a snake shows up. They come back to find Lieam is halfway down the snake's throat, but his sword is thrust up through its head, killing it. They turn around and come back to find him in a snake! They can't leave him alone for even a minute, clearly. :|
I just. Lolled so hard.
The whole thing is sooooooooo cute and soooooooo adorable. It's really kind of amazing the tone this thing takes, because it could have so easily gone off the rails. The mice are really cute, yet they can be intense when they need to be. It balances an atmosphere between cozy yet completely epic adventure. They look like real mice, all the details look like you could almost see these things happening, if only mice could talk and build their own little complex societies, right down to houses for themselves or little libraries with little step ladders or little forges to make little weapons.
They look like real mice, yet so much emotion manages to come through, you can see so much on their little faces. The use of an almost rough sort of style works wonderfully to capture the warm feel of everything, the beautiful scenery in the background, the leaves that are gorgeous to look at, the little carved out hollows in trees or little wooden carts, all of it is beautiful.
The second series (Winter 1152) seems to be a bit more complex with the art, the panels get a little busier, which I actually really like, I think it's just Petersen's art getting better, but the first one's art is kind of just right for the story it wanted to tell.
There's something really captivating about this series, something that really just caught me up in it in the way that all my favorite fantasy writing does. I almost felt like a kid again reading this, that little bit of wonder at the whimsy and adventure of it all, while still not dumbing it down for kids. Hell, a mouse dies rather horrifically (but by no means terribly graphic, it was just a really wrenching moment) and yet it doesn't lose that magic it has.
I was reading a review and I think one put it best as: It's a children's book for adults. Sure, I could see kids reading this, but I think adults will get more out of it than most kids these days. It's hard to appreciate beautiful, delicate artwork like this when you're a kid, but it's great for older people. I recommend it so hard and I'm looking forward to reading Winter of 1152.
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings:
Up to: Finished chapter 8, about halfway through the missions you get when you finish 8-4. Have not started chapter 9 yet.
I knew this game was tying everything together really nicely. I knew that it would continue to do so. And yet I'm still impressed and kind of blown away just a little bit by how smartly everything tied together after the revelations of that final fight against the Judge of Wings/Mydia. The revelations of her connections to the Cache of Glabados and Lemures was so much better than I'd anticipated, so much more natural-feeling to the FFXII world than I expected.
I'm a little unclear on how exactly this entire race of Feol Viera became more than just a handful, how did the original children of Feolthanos have more children? ....with each other? With humes? Like, who was Mydia's father, since we see her flashbacks with her mother, who was already a Feol Viera, I believe?
I loved the revelation that they were exiled from the original Viera, that they didn't have wings, so they couldn't fly up to Lemures with Feolthanos, that he left them the Cache of Glabados and the Galbana so that they could eventually join him, which explains where the ship came from and why this all started when they took the crystals from the Cache. Hey, an actual reason for that ship coming down to Ivalice and why everything started with the original mission!
And I love that the story is all about love that got twisted along the way. Feolthanos loved his children, but over time it became corrupt and turned evil. Mydia was desperate for Feolthanos' love, but his power overtook her and corrupted her, which makes her slaughter the rest of her race so that they can't be used like she's being used.
I love that it all comes back to the Occuria once again. That Feolthanos took the aegyl up to Lemures to escape their machinations, but couldn't let go of the lingering anger and hate for the Occuria for driving them from their home. That the events of FFXII at the Pharos Lighthouse and the Sun Cryst were what took down the barrier around Lemures and set all this in action.
I love that, in wanting to rebel against the Occuria, Feolthanos becomes almost exactly what they are--stealing the anima of the Aegyl in order to make them easier to control and used it to make himself even stronger. I love that it was the loss of Velis that set Mydia off on this path. (And, man, this is yet another example of a Hume/Viera relationship, the games really seem to love those.) I love that both she and Feolthanos were villains out of a twisted emotion that was once originally something good.
I love that that fits so well with the themes of FFXII and its final villain as well.
Oh, yeah, and. When Larsa has something to give Vaan and he says, oh, is it more potions? I LOLLED SO HARD. They were totally making fun of Larsa's endless bag of potions, which was seriously hilarious.
As far as gameplay goes, I know the NA version is a lot more difficult than the original Japanese game, but aaauuughh, I'm 34 hours in and nobody is above level 48. D: I've been doing fine (well, better than fine, really) with all the missions and stuff, I don't have trouble getting through most of them, but I'm not sure I want to put another 30 hours into this game just to get everyone up to level 99 so I can get Zodiark.
For the first time in awhile, I'm seriously considering just skipping that sidequest. .___. Especially since I have about four other games that are kind of really pressing right now. orz