Played MMORPGs

• Star Trek Online
  Star Trek Online is a good game overall, I don’t see why companies like GameSpot and the like rate it so bad (5.5). However, it does feel incomplete but that’s to be expected of most MMOs when they’re just starting up. Give it a year and your opinion may change. I don’t plan to be playing 24/7, but every once so often as things change and when I have some time to go where no man has gone before.
• EVE Online
  I tried playing it again in the summer last year, and found that it was still as boring as ever, or took up too much time to justify keeping the ISK intake in and buying PLEXes. If I can’t be bothered to make ISK and buy PLEXes, why should I continue to play the game? I’m not even paying for it (only paid the initial $5 re-entry cost), so oh well.
• Mabinogi
  I notice Nexon has reached some of the new content Mabinogi has in Korea, though whether I will come back to take a look at it is another story. It’s nice to see that there are a few changes in Nexon policy for the better, but whether that will translate to having a company that can properly support players and provide quality customer support is another thing altogether.

Recent Purchases

I’ve recently made some orders online, for ESPGaluda II and a Hori Fighting Stick EX 2. Now you may say, why the FSEX2? It’s because right now it’s $39.99 CAD from Amazon.ca and it’s not an offer I’m going to easily throw away. The thing is supposed to be some $60-70, so it’s definitely a bargain. Compared to the $150+ price range that tournament-level sticks have, with a bit of tinkering (I know the process already, and I have the tools and people with expertise for it), I may one day have something that can compete with those sticks.

Upcoming Releases

• Mobile Suit Gundam UC – March 12
  Yes, I already watched it, but I am getting the Blu-ray. If you’re not, I don’t know what you’re doing.
• Chaos;Head Love Chu Chu – March 25
  Not exactly a game I’m looking forward to. The fandisc, shall we call it, appears to have a lot of service for those who are fans of Chaos;Head, but I’m more in love with the Steins;Gate aspect of the world. If there’s anything interesting about the game that I will miss out on, such as Steins;Gate related stuff, then I might give it a shot. Otherwise, this is going on the backburner… until maybe it goes cheap?
• Ketsui: Kizuna jigoku tachi – April 22
  The legendary shmup of shmups, shall we say. This is a must-buy. Though it’ll be 360 only, that’s what the FSEX2 is for.
• Angel Beats – April 22
  This is an anime I will be keeping tabs on, it being written by Jun Maeda. I notice he’s taken a step away from visual novels, but that doesn’t mean he’s done with writing stories.
• Lost Planet 2 – May 18
  Already pre-ordered this one for the 360, really looking forward to it.
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker – May 25
  I haven’t pre-ordered this because I’m waiting for it to come out on PSN, so I can buy it. Screw the UMD format, because flash memory access times are where it’s at. MGS4 was a total disappointment, but Peace Walker is turning out to be the game that MGS4 should have been, and then some. In fact, MGS4 should never have happened.

Current Anime

As a final note, I noticed that the plethora of current anime is all just total garbage. It’s all full of moeblobs and focusing on girls but very little on good storytelling. There are a few exceptions out there, but sadly they are a minority in the sea of anime where everything is all about what’s under a girl’s clothing. Sadly, because of how stupid the otaku in Japan are, this will only continue to worsen until I don’t know what kind of bubble pops. I will pray that those who know how to continue writing good anime will continue in the industry doing what they love.

P.S. Mizushima may be high from all that love he has for the Middle East, but he did make Gundam 00. Great times.

So it looks like SEGA can afford allowing extra collaborations beyond the UMD space. Might I make a couple of suggestions (though not wholly inclusive):

CHAOS;HEAD

• All the Di-Swords as swords, except for Rimi’s which would be a Twin Dagger
• Suimei Academy uniforms for men and women. Women would have more variations, particularly in choices like stocking colors, etc.
• Seira-tan’s outfit, pre and post-awakening versions
• Possibly Rimi’s “Final Attack” as a Photon Mirage? Doubtful
• Hair styles covered from CHAOS;HEAD not already covered by PSP2

.hack

• Kite’s Twin Daggers, Haseo’s X-Form Twin Daggers
• Data Drain Bracelet as a Photon Mirage
• All 8 Epitaphs as MAGs
• Hair styles covered from .hack not already covered by PSP2

Sadly, I cannot think of anything for Steins;Gate. Despite it having a story x1000 that of CHAOS;HEAD, it unfortunately would not fit…

Sena: 7/10
Ayase: 8/10
Kozue: 4/10

Spoilers after the jump.

Kozue

Seriously, what the hell was with the Kozue route? From what I gathered, you could pretty much pin it down to the story of two kids in high school suddenly going mad because of:

1. their personality
2. the world around them

And seriously speaking, I don’t mind people dying in routes at all, but the thing is, you should at least make it reasonable and have some kind of meaning. You don’t just write people off for no reason, and particularly when it doesn’t move the story at all, other than showing oh how cruel it must be for Kozue to kill her best friend against her will.

If it were up to me, I would have explored her character backstory more; like, what she was like before she transferred to Takumi’s school, a more psychological breakdown over that whole “Who are you?” line, with the mirror and all. It’s just a shame, they had so much to explore, but I just couldn’t put up with the aforementioned lack of material for the route.

Sena

Her route is called “Deus Ex Machina”… I notice that there are a lot of loose ends still left in this, and it certainly raises a lot more questions than it does answer. I was hoping for a more detailed scenario, but I guess given her character, there isn’t much you can do when most of it was already explored in the main route, with the relationship between her and Hatano Issei. Oh well, it’s not a bad route.

And I’m not too certain about whether or not Takumi and Sena died there after blowing up Noah II; they left yet some more loose ends on that one, good job 5pb. Instead of using the namesake to tie up loose ends, you created more! :p

Ayase

This route stands out to be a lot more reasonable and actually more enjoyable. We get to explore Ayase’s psyche, why she acts the way she does, and how this whole Gradiale thing comes down with her and the world she sees. In fact, she never even saw a blue sky, so by the end of her route, she’s like crying when she finally does, and I thought that was pretty nice. Besides that though, they left some loose ends in this route as well, like, why does she have Rimi and Nanami’s Di-Swords with her, and she’s all bloodied and stuff. Not something that was covered, with her only making some kind of miniscule excuse that we’re supposed to understand, but not really.

I’ll look onto other routes as I get some more time.

They’re fictional blog posts, of course, but hey, trying to work on personas a little bit is an interesting thing to try out.

That said, the blog does look like it needs its own personal skin. Anyone have any suggestions?

I like the new one that came with WordPress 2.7 for the administration menu, but I don’t think I’ve seen it as a theme that can be used for actual blog posts…

TV commercial, 15 seconds (Nicovideo).