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bouteillebleuThis entry's mostly about video games. I was lucky enough to find not one, but two good games in my local "these cheap UK and import games didn't fall off the back of a lorry, honest guv" shop - Suikoden III, and the US version of Disgaea. Now I have to sell my UK version to someone, because I've only played it once and won't ever again.
Enough of Disgaea, though. I got Suikoden III last Friday and then spent about 45 hours on it in just a week. I'm up to 51 hours now, after substantial amounts of subquests, collecting lots of extra characters and getting all sorts of new businesses set up in my base.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
theblunderbuss has mentioned that he likes Suikoden II more than III, and if it's as good as he says I'm going to have to look for it as soon as I can after I've finished this one. Despite occasional errors in the text (which any RPG will have - and four or five in fifty hours is not at all bad), and a combat system that's reasonable, but not the best, it's become probably my favourite RPG, or at least one of my favourites. So I'd like to see the game that can beat it.
(The best combat system is, of course, Grandia II. No question about it.)
This Friday, I stayed over at a friend's house in Cambridge - I had to go there to photocopy a whole load of articles from the university library, and with it taking three or four hours to get there or back, I figured it'd be best to spend the night if I could. Somehow, instead of sleeping, I ended up playing Kagetsu Tohya. It's the sequel game to the Tsukihime game (which is roughly where my icon comes from), and is utterly mad. In eight hours, I ended up playing through it four times - one of these times Shiki (my character) died when a panther with a poor command of Japanese bit half his head off while he was holding someone's underwear. Yes, it's that sort of game.
I discovered that you can get injured in Tokimemo 3, as well. You may ask, how the hell can you get injured in a dating sim? In my case, it's because my character played too much football and failed at it too many times (how you do depends on your biorhythms, which depend on the phase of the moon, I think). Getting injured means that you have bandages around one of the stat bars, a little crutch at the bottom of the screen, and it means you can do almost nothing. Especially go on dates, which is a real annoyance.
About all I could really do was watch TV, which is permanently on a shopping channel featuring two guys called Johnny and Bob, whose selling pitch goes something like:
Bob: Afternoon, Johnny! You don't look happy...
Johnny: Yeah, I've got a date with a girl / my big brother's bullying me / I've got an exam coming up, and I don't know what to do...
Voiceover: What you need is a fancy looking reversible cape / a pair of super-cool sunglasses / a study tape to listen to while you're asleep, and it'll solve all your problems!
Johnny: Wow! Now I can impress the girls / stand up to my big brother / learn for my test with no trouble.
Voiceover: Act now, and get a free pair of trousers / glasses case and sunscreen / study casette.
Johnny and Bob: What are you waiting for? Call now!
All in Japanese, of course. I have a feeling that what my character says after he watches the show is, "Every time I watch that, I feel a bit more stupid. And I have a sudden compulsion to buy things."
And just before I turned the PS2 off, my character was apparently afflicted with neurosis. This is getting very confusing. Neurosis doesn't appear to do anything yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it afflicted me on dates and made girls hate my character... not that my character needs much help with that, given the number of times the girls say, "I'm sorry, but I can't make that day" or "Sorry it's such short notice, but I can't go on today's date" or even, "Your clothes are awful. I'm off." Ah well, rejection strengthens resolve, and so on.
I'm also thinking of tidying up my NaNoWriMo entry from last year (giving it chapter titles, and so on), and posting it a chapter at a time on my LJ. Of course, since it's not finished, this may be a bad idea. I've got 50,000 words done, but I'm expecting to do another few ten thousand at least before it's done. It will be done in time for this November (otherwise I won't be able to concentrate on this year's NaNoWriMo, of course), but is it a good idea for me to post it while it's still a work in progress?
Enough of Disgaea, though. I got Suikoden III last Friday and then spent about 45 hours on it in just a week. I'm up to 51 hours now, after substantial amounts of subquests, collecting lots of extra characters and getting all sorts of new businesses set up in my base.
theblunderbuss has mentioned that he likes Suikoden II more than III, and if it's as good as he says I'm going to have to look for it as soon as I can after I've finished this one. Despite occasional errors in the text (which any RPG will have - and four or five in fifty hours is not at all bad), and a combat system that's reasonable, but not the best, it's become probably my favourite RPG, or at least one of my favourites. So I'd like to see the game that can beat it.(The best combat system is, of course, Grandia II. No question about it.)
This Friday, I stayed over at a friend's house in Cambridge - I had to go there to photocopy a whole load of articles from the university library, and with it taking three or four hours to get there or back, I figured it'd be best to spend the night if I could. Somehow, instead of sleeping, I ended up playing Kagetsu Tohya. It's the sequel game to the Tsukihime game (which is roughly where my icon comes from), and is utterly mad. In eight hours, I ended up playing through it four times - one of these times Shiki (my character) died when a panther with a poor command of Japanese bit half his head off while he was holding someone's underwear. Yes, it's that sort of game.
I discovered that you can get injured in Tokimemo 3, as well. You may ask, how the hell can you get injured in a dating sim? In my case, it's because my character played too much football and failed at it too many times (how you do depends on your biorhythms, which depend on the phase of the moon, I think). Getting injured means that you have bandages around one of the stat bars, a little crutch at the bottom of the screen, and it means you can do almost nothing. Especially go on dates, which is a real annoyance.
About all I could really do was watch TV, which is permanently on a shopping channel featuring two guys called Johnny and Bob, whose selling pitch goes something like:
Bob: Afternoon, Johnny! You don't look happy...
Johnny: Yeah, I've got a date with a girl / my big brother's bullying me / I've got an exam coming up, and I don't know what to do...
Voiceover: What you need is a fancy looking reversible cape / a pair of super-cool sunglasses / a study tape to listen to while you're asleep, and it'll solve all your problems!
Johnny: Wow! Now I can impress the girls / stand up to my big brother / learn for my test with no trouble.
Voiceover: Act now, and get a free pair of trousers / glasses case and sunscreen / study casette.
Johnny and Bob: What are you waiting for? Call now!
All in Japanese, of course. I have a feeling that what my character says after he watches the show is, "Every time I watch that, I feel a bit more stupid. And I have a sudden compulsion to buy things."
And just before I turned the PS2 off, my character was apparently afflicted with neurosis. This is getting very confusing. Neurosis doesn't appear to do anything yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it afflicted me on dates and made girls hate my character... not that my character needs much help with that, given the number of times the girls say, "I'm sorry, but I can't make that day" or "Sorry it's such short notice, but I can't go on today's date" or even, "Your clothes are awful. I'm off." Ah well, rejection strengthens resolve, and so on.
I'm also thinking of tidying up my NaNoWriMo entry from last year (giving it chapter titles, and so on), and posting it a chapter at a time on my LJ. Of course, since it's not finished, this may be a bad idea. I've got 50,000 words done, but I'm expecting to do another few ten thousand at least before it's done. It will be done in time for this November (otherwise I won't be able to concentrate on this year's NaNoWriMo, of course), but is it a good idea for me to post it while it's still a work in progress?
