Some ramblings and musings
Haha, two posts in two days!? WHAT SORCERY IS THIS!?
Man, DW really does make this whole transition thing easy. I was skeptical at first, but fuck if it's not convenient. I don't like the layouts or colors as much, but I gotta give credit where it's due. The fact that it seems that people are actually using this for their personal stuff is also a pretty big incentive. I hope you guys keep that up, because damn I miss honest-to-god social blogging.
Alright, well. LIFE STUFF HERE, HUH?
Not a whole hell of a lot's going on in Ace-world, but there's a few signs things are kinda starting to turn around. I've got a class-load, and I only have a very small fee to pay for enrollment, and there don't seem to be any major problems. Nothing on the job front, but my social life is improving- My long-time/life long best friend (1 of 2) has been sleeping on the couch here for personal reasons, which means having somebody to talk to that isn't online and isn't family at all times. Can't say enough how awesome that's been.
Meanwhile, uh... I guess things are "+1" in the relationship department... I've kind of sort of been maybe seeing someone. Really, it's a long time in coming and it's frankly more of a matter of 'took you long enough, dumbass' and it really shouldn't come as a huge shock but man, kinda throws me for a bit of a loop how fast it's all come together. There's a backstory I won't get into, but it's a person I've known for a long time in internet terms now, and there've been feelings thrown back and forth for a good solid year plus now... As usual I'm an idiot, but it finally 'clicked' and once it did, yeah, no turning back. So there's that. (Also, if you're reading this, try not to spaz out too much. Dork.)
In much, much less interesting fandom centric terms, I've enabled another poor hapless soul into the amazingness that is Super Robot Taisen. Specifically, the OG anime because fuck man, that storytelling... I hope she continues to enjoy everything the franchise has to offer. In related model kit project news, I've amassed quite a haul for the holidays (Which includes my birthday because I was born in late november). A total of no less than five new kits and counting. Aaaaall super robot wars. /BRB Rolling in this.
I've also started a new project, which is painting the SRX. Those who read my old blog may have remembered I started modding it slightly a while back, and now I'm gonna finish the job with a shiny paint-job, aww yiss. Photos and WIP shots incoming eventually, probably.
Also, been playing the FUCK out of Endless Frontier. A little background on that- Quite some time ago now (as in over a year ago), I bought the game used at ye olde local gamestop. Complete with case and instruction bookleet mmmmmmm yeaaah. Then I popped the carte in my DS, played for 20 minutes, and the next day I received a certain game in the mail that may or may not have been the poor, sweet, misguided girl mentioned above. Promptly switched gamecarts, and Endless Frontier vanished into thin air, "never to be seen again"... I tore my room apart multiple times looking for that damn game, and couldn't find it. Then finally, on an off-shot whim I decided to check my filing cabinet of all things again... lowe and behold, the cart had magically reappeared, tucked neatly between a stack of papers. what it was doing there, I'll never know. (Really, it was probably a time when I might have been a little drunk and I probably put it there for safekeeping and forgot about it. But that makes the story so much dumber and less interesting.) I've been playing damn near non-stop since then.
I've got a few fandom musings about the storyline. First of all, it's quite good. I expected the inclusion of Namco original characters not to exactly thrill me, and really it doesn't. Xiaomu and Reiji I love to pieces (And they fit in perfectly along with the theme of SRW original characters) but I'll never not headshake at the inclusion of Kos-Mos. Why include an established character from a named franchise in an 'Original Generation' label video games? The entire point to this universe is for it NOT to be crossovers. The only thing that makes sense in that case is that with Namco now owned by Bandai, Namco original characters are considered Banpresto originals now and are thus fairgame... but Kos-Mos would explicitly place Xenosaga within the larger context of the Super Robot Wars Original Generation multi-verse. Which is a concession I'm not entirely pleased with, frankly. Maybe because I was never particularly thrilled with the Xenosaga series as a whole... But that's that, can't argue with it or change it now.
Meanwhile, in story terms, there's some interesting tidbits involving the Einst. It was already known they could mentally control people, but it's interesting to see that done on a larger scale. The game also sheds a little light into how they operate. What I find interesting is are tiny aesthetic nods that may not have been intended but are none-the-less interesting in their own right. First, the fact that the Einst come in human-sized varieties rather than just giant robot sized 'kaiju' is an interesting thing to note. Second, the Einst are again producing near-exact copies of existing machines, which is an ability that I think hasn't been visited since Impact when they were making copies of the mass production Gespenst. Second, the fact that the einst copied shadow-mirror universe mechs is interesting. It's already known they had some knowledge of that universe in that they had Beowulf in their hands, but what I find more interesting are the cosmetic similarities between the original SM version of the Weissritter and the Rein Weissritter. Obviously, in real world terms this is because the designers wanted a weiss that would be something between the original and the upgrade, but it introduces an odd concept- some of the Abend's design choices are too much of a coincidence to have been replicated in the Einst-produced Rein Weissritter in the absence of each other. Is it possible that the Einst had knowledge of the Shadow Mirror Universe's Weissritter Abend and modified Excellen's Weissritter to be more in tune with the Shadow Mirror's more powerful version? It's probably a question that'll never be properly answered, but in the meantime, I'm going to assume so and have that be my static theory.
I'm obviously overthinking this. Hah, but that's what I do!
Man, DW really does make this whole transition thing easy. I was skeptical at first, but fuck if it's not convenient. I don't like the layouts or colors as much, but I gotta give credit where it's due. The fact that it seems that people are actually using this for their personal stuff is also a pretty big incentive. I hope you guys keep that up, because damn I miss honest-to-god social blogging.
Alright, well. LIFE STUFF HERE, HUH?
Not a whole hell of a lot's going on in Ace-world, but there's a few signs things are kinda starting to turn around. I've got a class-load, and I only have a very small fee to pay for enrollment, and there don't seem to be any major problems. Nothing on the job front, but my social life is improving- My long-time/life long best friend (1 of 2) has been sleeping on the couch here for personal reasons, which means having somebody to talk to that isn't online and isn't family at all times. Can't say enough how awesome that's been.
Meanwhile, uh... I guess things are "+1" in the relationship department... I've kind of sort of been maybe seeing someone. Really, it's a long time in coming and it's frankly more of a matter of 'took you long enough, dumbass' and it really shouldn't come as a huge shock but man, kinda throws me for a bit of a loop how fast it's all come together. There's a backstory I won't get into, but it's a person I've known for a long time in internet terms now, and there've been feelings thrown back and forth for a good solid year plus now... As usual I'm an idiot, but it finally 'clicked' and once it did, yeah, no turning back. So there's that. (Also, if you're reading this, try not to spaz out too much. Dork.)
In much, much less interesting fandom centric terms, I've enabled another poor hapless soul into the amazingness that is Super Robot Taisen. Specifically, the OG anime because fuck man, that storytelling... I hope she continues to enjoy everything the franchise has to offer. In related model kit project news, I've amassed quite a haul for the holidays (Which includes my birthday because I was born in late november). A total of no less than five new kits and counting. Aaaaall super robot wars. /BRB Rolling in this.
I've also started a new project, which is painting the SRX. Those who read my old blog may have remembered I started modding it slightly a while back, and now I'm gonna finish the job with a shiny paint-job, aww yiss. Photos and WIP shots incoming eventually, probably.
Also, been playing the FUCK out of Endless Frontier. A little background on that- Quite some time ago now (as in over a year ago), I bought the game used at ye olde local gamestop. Complete with case and instruction bookleet mmmmmmm yeaaah. Then I popped the carte in my DS, played for 20 minutes, and the next day I received a certain game in the mail that may or may not have been the poor, sweet, misguided girl mentioned above. Promptly switched gamecarts, and Endless Frontier vanished into thin air, "never to be seen again"... I tore my room apart multiple times looking for that damn game, and couldn't find it. Then finally, on an off-shot whim I decided to check my filing cabinet of all things again... lowe and behold, the cart had magically reappeared, tucked neatly between a stack of papers. what it was doing there, I'll never know. (Really, it was probably a time when I might have been a little drunk and I probably put it there for safekeeping and forgot about it. But that makes the story so much dumber and less interesting.) I've been playing damn near non-stop since then.
I've got a few fandom musings about the storyline. First of all, it's quite good. I expected the inclusion of Namco original characters not to exactly thrill me, and really it doesn't. Xiaomu and Reiji I love to pieces (And they fit in perfectly along with the theme of SRW original characters) but I'll never not headshake at the inclusion of Kos-Mos. Why include an established character from a named franchise in an 'Original Generation' label video games? The entire point to this universe is for it NOT to be crossovers. The only thing that makes sense in that case is that with Namco now owned by Bandai, Namco original characters are considered Banpresto originals now and are thus fairgame... but Kos-Mos would explicitly place Xenosaga within the larger context of the Super Robot Wars Original Generation multi-verse. Which is a concession I'm not entirely pleased with, frankly. Maybe because I was never particularly thrilled with the Xenosaga series as a whole... But that's that, can't argue with it or change it now.
Meanwhile, in story terms, there's some interesting tidbits involving the Einst. It was already known they could mentally control people, but it's interesting to see that done on a larger scale. The game also sheds a little light into how they operate. What I find interesting is are tiny aesthetic nods that may not have been intended but are none-the-less interesting in their own right. First, the fact that the Einst come in human-sized varieties rather than just giant robot sized 'kaiju' is an interesting thing to note. Second, the Einst are again producing near-exact copies of existing machines, which is an ability that I think hasn't been visited since Impact when they were making copies of the mass production Gespenst. Second, the fact that the einst copied shadow-mirror universe mechs is interesting. It's already known they had some knowledge of that universe in that they had Beowulf in their hands, but what I find more interesting are the cosmetic similarities between the original SM version of the Weissritter and the Rein Weissritter. Obviously, in real world terms this is because the designers wanted a weiss that would be something between the original and the upgrade, but it introduces an odd concept- some of the Abend's design choices are too much of a coincidence to have been replicated in the Einst-produced Rein Weissritter in the absence of each other. Is it possible that the Einst had knowledge of the Shadow Mirror Universe's Weissritter Abend and modified Excellen's Weissritter to be more in tune with the Shadow Mirror's more powerful version? It's probably a question that'll never be properly answered, but in the meantime, I'm going to assume so and have that be my static theory.
I'm obviously overthinking this. Hah, but that's what I do!