'Lo.
Sooo. Yeah. Long time no see. Welp, I've been going to school in preparation for...going back to school more regularly. >_> Doing well so far, I think, just have to keep plodding through and also get my application for my full transfer in holy crap. Classes are fun, though my Intro to World Religions - East prof is either an asshole or a NEET because while he's very intelligent when he's teaching, he likes to make us traipse out to the suburbs beyond the reach of Metro to go to Buddhist temples on Sundays so the buses don't run because he couldn't just get the school to hire a van or something. GAH. What is it with Buddhist professors and being super-annoyingly evangelistic!? There's a reason we don't generally let diehard Christians run this shit (unless we're in the Deep South or something), and Buddhists seem to be about the same! Ahem. Anyway, having a bunch of Eastern Religion courses is proving quite engaging for the most part, 'cause it's history I like and includes a bunch of other disciplines. Also Zhuangzi is my favorite philosopher yet.
I'm still watching Star Driver, though Heaven knows why: it's almost like a mahou shoujo which missed most of the parodies and deconstructions of the genre in favor of Takuto-kun's Cliche High School Drama and Giant Robot Ass-Pull Central: Now With More Fanservice. I guess I'm watching in the hopes that Takuto eventually gets his ass kicked and maybe even dies because damn I have not wanted a protagonist to lose this much since Sailor Moon. (And at least Sailor Moon featured different team members who weren't loving pathetic; Wako and Sugata are damn near useless aside from "Oh wait, we have OTHER characters in the party too. HURR PLOT POWERZ GO.") Although this will not happen. *sigh* I miss Kuragehime and its interesting characters so much. :(
Also, speaking of which, GAMES: HaruToki 5 is out, and I've started really playing 4 in earnest. I have to say, so far 5's heroine Yuki is proving to be a weird mix of GAR and tennen. She's got this annoying "curious deer" expression when she's not sure about something (which is often), she's incredibly naive, and she feels a lot younger than Nozomi (3's main character) or Chihiro (4's). That said, she doesn't back down from anything, is actually quick-thinking when she's not being an idiot to progress the plot, and is obviously going to try and save EVERYBODY because that's just how she rolls, so at least she's not quite an ordinary otome game protagonist. (CHIZURU I'M LOOKING AT YOU.) And frankly, given that Yuki's fifteen and is flipping between two worlds, one of which is a completely devastated version of her own and the other a fantasy version of the Bakumatsu, I can cut her some slack about being clueless in the beginning unless she keeps up like this for the whole game. (Although how the hell did she miss the history classes on the end of the Edo period if she grew up in Japan!? That's like missing the entire Civil War chapter in the States.)
Chihiro, on the other hand, is made of pure win; she's already led an (unfortunately unsuccessful) raid on an invader's compound, and her troops already like her as a leader. Going from being a normal high school student to a badass princess leading an oppressed country didn't take her long at all. XD It's a real pity some of the production values in 4 suffered so much; the 3D models are kind of terrible for a 2008 game and voice-acting drops off sharply after the first few scenes, but the battle system is much more in-depth than 3's (and possibly 5's) and I love the pre-historical Japanese setting (in part because holy crap look at all dem kemonomimi clans). As for the guys, Nagi's a total bitch, but everyone else seems adorable/interesting enough to be worth capturing, and there are plenty of other non-Hachiyou characters (including old/adult women holy shit!) who are awesome as well.
So far, both games have more of an emphasis than 3 did on the priestesses being able to hear the cries of the various spiritual beings and gods running amok in this alternate world, which I really like; it gives the games a more "fantastic" save-the-world aspect that highlights the empathetic aspects of being a Miko and requires the heroines to make their own decisions (admittedly often at the cost of logic, but it works out, so hey). I'm sorry, as much as I know people are getting tired of it, I love saving the world and all the creatures in it. (There's a reason Okami is like my favorite anything ever.) I'm not here just to catch a man, I'm here to beat the crap out of spirits to free/purify them and be the heroine, dammit. In 5 I think the spirit-whisperer thing may lead to some intriguing tensions; since Yuki is the only one in the party who can hear the gods' voices, everyone else (except for Captain Exposition Amami) thinks she's crazy. I'm starting to think her tennen nature was no accident and that she might even grow out of it by the end. Hopefully Ruby Party won't disappoint.
I've also got Radiant Historia, which is excellent as well; I'll post something on it later maybe, but you should probably get it if you like time-travel, Atlus and/or JRPGs.
Dissidia Duodecim, SSM6, Okamiden, and Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 1 are next on the list; wow but this February and March are big game months after the doldrums of winter. Dammit, developers, spread your releases out a bit more! *shakes fist*
I'm still watching Star Driver, though Heaven knows why: it's almost like a mahou shoujo which missed most of the parodies and deconstructions of the genre in favor of Takuto-kun's Cliche High School Drama and Giant Robot Ass-Pull Central: Now With More Fanservice. I guess I'm watching in the hopes that Takuto eventually gets his ass kicked and maybe even dies because damn I have not wanted a protagonist to lose this much since Sailor Moon. (And at least Sailor Moon featured different team members who weren't loving pathetic; Wako and Sugata are damn near useless aside from "Oh wait, we have OTHER characters in the party too. HURR PLOT POWERZ GO.") Although this will not happen. *sigh* I miss Kuragehime and its interesting characters so much. :(
Also, speaking of which, GAMES: HaruToki 5 is out, and I've started really playing 4 in earnest. I have to say, so far 5's heroine Yuki is proving to be a weird mix of GAR and tennen. She's got this annoying "curious deer" expression when she's not sure about something (which is often), she's incredibly naive, and she feels a lot younger than Nozomi (3's main character) or Chihiro (4's). That said, she doesn't back down from anything, is actually quick-thinking when she's not being an idiot to progress the plot, and is obviously going to try and save EVERYBODY because that's just how she rolls, so at least she's not quite an ordinary otome game protagonist. (CHIZURU I'M LOOKING AT YOU.) And frankly, given that Yuki's fifteen and is flipping between two worlds, one of which is a completely devastated version of her own and the other a fantasy version of the Bakumatsu, I can cut her some slack about being clueless in the beginning unless she keeps up like this for the whole game. (Although how the hell did she miss the history classes on the end of the Edo period if she grew up in Japan!? That's like missing the entire Civil War chapter in the States.)
Chihiro, on the other hand, is made of pure win; she's already led an (unfortunately unsuccessful) raid on an invader's compound, and her troops already like her as a leader. Going from being a normal high school student to a badass princess leading an oppressed country didn't take her long at all. XD It's a real pity some of the production values in 4 suffered so much; the 3D models are kind of terrible for a 2008 game and voice-acting drops off sharply after the first few scenes, but the battle system is much more in-depth than 3's (and possibly 5's) and I love the pre-historical Japanese setting (in part because holy crap look at all dem kemonomimi clans). As for the guys, Nagi's a total bitch, but everyone else seems adorable/interesting enough to be worth capturing, and there are plenty of other non-Hachiyou characters (including old/adult women holy shit!) who are awesome as well.
So far, both games have more of an emphasis than 3 did on the priestesses being able to hear the cries of the various spiritual beings and gods running amok in this alternate world, which I really like; it gives the games a more "fantastic" save-the-world aspect that highlights the empathetic aspects of being a Miko and requires the heroines to make their own decisions (admittedly often at the cost of logic, but it works out, so hey). I'm sorry, as much as I know people are getting tired of it, I love saving the world and all the creatures in it. (There's a reason Okami is like my favorite anything ever.) I'm not here just to catch a man, I'm here to beat the crap out of spirits to free/purify them and be the heroine, dammit. In 5 I think the spirit-whisperer thing may lead to some intriguing tensions; since Yuki is the only one in the party who can hear the gods' voices, everyone else (except for Captain Exposition Amami) thinks she's crazy. I'm starting to think her tennen nature was no accident and that she might even grow out of it by the end. Hopefully Ruby Party won't disappoint.
I've also got Radiant Historia, which is excellent as well; I'll post something on it later maybe, but you should probably get it if you like time-travel, Atlus and/or JRPGs.
Dissidia Duodecim, SSM6, Okamiden, and Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 1 are next on the list; wow but this February and March are big game months after the doldrums of winter. Dammit, developers, spread your releases out a bit more! *shakes fist*