Am I forever dreaming...

I've been digging through my CDs and DVDs, trying to get a handle on what I still have, what I sent home from Japan, and what I don't have anymore. I've been finding a lot of "why did I bother sending THIS home" discs, however. *coughMorningMusumecrapcough*

I have a lot of Utada Hikaru's CDs. She was one of my favorite Japanese artists. However, now she's trying to gain a foothold in the American music scene, and in order to do so, she's changed up her style and sound into electronica/dance music, which is just not my thing. Angela Aki's taken up the number one spot on my Japanese music prefs nowadays, anyway.

I also have a lot of single songs/albums from artists who were flavor of the day for varying periods of time...Hajime Chitose, Nakashima Miyuki, Nana Katase, and several others that have never made a splash outside of Japan.

One pleasant surprise for me was uncovering a couple of video game soundtracks, of all things. Katamari Damashii, because all the tunes on there are really jazzy and catchy, and ICO.

ICO is this really atmospheric game for the PlayStation 2. Very little dialogue, beautiful graphics, challenging puzzles, and a very intriguing setting. The game soundtrack includes one song with vocals (in English, even), that uses some abstract imagery, fitting in very nicely with the game itself.

The island bathes in the sun's bright rays
Distant hills wear a shroud of grey
A lonely breeze whispers in the trees
Sole witness to history

Fleeting memories rise
From the shadows of my mind
Sing "nonomori" - endless corridors
Say "nonomori" - hopeless warriors
You were there
You were there

Am I forever dreaming
How to define the way I'm feeling

You were there
Countless visions they haunt me in my sleep
You were there
Though forgotten all promises we keep

Slaves to our destiny
I recall a melody
Sing "nonomori" - seasons lit with gold
Say "nonomori" - legends yet untold
You were there
You were there

Happiness follows sorrow
Only believing in tomorrow

You were there
Countless visions they haunt me in my sleep
You were there
Though forgotten all promises we keep

The island bathes in the sun's bright rays
Distant hills wear a shroud of grey
A lonely breeze whispers in the trees
Sole key to this mystery

Just had an odd experience (and yes, I'm a geek).

One of the ways I spend my copious amounts of free time is by playing video games. Occasionally, I use my Nintendo DS to go online and play complete strangers in MarioKart, or PuyoPuyo.

Today it was MarioKart. Fired up the DS, selected Wi-Fi たいせん, set it to find people on the same level as me. After a few seconds, the Nintendo Wi-Fi service hooked me up with three other players. Two of them were on a similar level as me. One of them...

Warning sign number one: His chosen character was Shy Guy, a character that's normally only playable if you don't have a MarioKart game of your own, and you've downloaded the game from your opponent (who has to be in the same room). Warning sign number 2: His win/loss record was 999999off the screen/1167.

First course was "Rainbow Road," a favorite of mine. I managed to get the rocket start off, and took first place immediately -- only to be hit by two(!) blue shells in succession. This before we get to the first item boxes...

This guy would then race just ahead of the rest of us, give himself an invincibility star, then go back and forth continuously knocking us over until we all fell off the track. Then, during the recovery time, he'd travel a short distance down the track and do it again. If anyone managed to pass him, blue shells until he could catch up.

Apparently, this guy's goal wasn't just to win, but to humiliate us in the process. Some people find that fun, I guess, but not me. I mean, what's the point in playing at all if you hack the game and take all the challenge out of it?

One player dropped out after the first track; I quit halfway through the second. Took a hit on my win/loss record, but so what? I was gonna lose anyway, and if this ShyGuy got his jollies off of me quitting, whatever.

I tried re-connecting right after, and ran into a more common opponent: the Guy who's Mastered the Mini-Turbo. Kicked my ass on the easiest track, 8 Cross. However, I'm the Guy who's Mastered One Track, and when Rainbow Road came up, I returned the ass-kicking.

I lose more than I win online, but I still enjoy playing. (when it's fair, of course.) So, if any of you play Mario Kart DS still, and see someone with the handle ロバート and a StrongBad emblem, that's me.

And now for something completely different: An arcade game review

Last year, Square-Enix (of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest fame) tried their hand at making an arcade multi-player game. They partnered up with Taito (of Space Invaders fame) and came up with an interesting concept: A collectible card roleplaying game. They called the result 悠久の車輪〜Eternal Wheel.


The concept is pretty simple. You are a summoner, doing battle with another summoner on a small battleground. You place your characters onto the battlefield by laying out their character cards on the lower screen of the game console. The console scans the cards (I have only a vague idea how that works) and their position on the playscreen. Each card has a level from one to four, and you can only have up to 10 levels worth of cards on the playfield.

There are three varieties of characters: Keepers, Seekers, and Masters. Keepers are stronger than Seekers, and are mainly direct fighters. Seekers are stronger than Masters, and have high speed but lower attack stats. Masters are stronger than Keepers (yes, it's a "rock-paper-scissors" kind of thing) and specialize in distance attacks.

Aside from beating the crap out of your opponent's characters, you need to set up a zone of control on the playfield. Note the green area marked off on the minimap in the lower corner of the above screenshot. The bigger your ZOC, the stronger your grand summons ("Ambassador") is.

癒しの天使ラファエル

Angel of Healing Raphael

Your "Ambassadors" are basically your big guns, and calling on one takes a lot of power. Once you call one, it crosses the battlefield, basically ignoring the enemy creatures, and directly attacks your opponent. Your creatures can also damage your opponent, but not nearly as much.

西草原のネメシア
Nemesia of the Western Meadow

There is a wide variety of characters, split into six clans, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Every time you play, you get a new character card, so the more you play the more strategies you can try. However, the game itself is rather expensive -- ¥500 for a starter pack of four cards, ¥300 for each game (continues are ¥200). Even though it's a fun and interesting game, I was going to stop playing after the first couple times. However, on my last play-through, I got a shiny foil-enhanced RARE card!!! Squee! so I put off the play stoppage for a while. (As it turns out, the rare card wasn't all that much stronger than some of my common cards...)

冥界の騎士デュラハン
Knight of Hades Durahan

It's a fun game, easy to play, yet complex enough to offer a lot of variety of gameplay. Everything you need to know about your characters is printed on the card, and also self-evident from the playscreen (attack range, etc. show up as highlighted areas around your cards). Plus, there's a nifty screenshot button on the console that allows you to download game screens from the internet (note the player name on that first screenshot).

So, following the success of Eternal Wheel, Square-Enix decided to try their hand at designing a follow-up on their own (while still using Taito's hardware). The result, "Lord of Vermillion". . . kind of sucks. They took what I thought was best about Eternal Wheel -- the simplicity -- and removed it completely. Among other things, your characters have a very limited attack zone, and if they're facing the wrong direction (i.e. the card is turned the wrong way), they won't attack. Plus, there are several different attack options, including a "sacrifice" attack, which require you to micromanage your characters. Woe betide you if you hit the sacrifice button by mistake...

(No screenshot button on Lord of Vermillion, by the way.)

NiGHTS into Dreams...

How odd. I seem to have picked up a SEGA Saturn game for my PS2...

I only ever played this on the demo machines at Target, but I always thought it looked cool. I had no clue what the game was about, though.

Now that I actually have a manual (that I can sort of read...) and a chance to play for longer than two minutes at a time...well, it looks even cooler, and the story is interesting so far. I'm not very good at it yet, but it's still fun.

Sega even included a Saturn graphics mode, for the full retro nostalgia effect. Off to play some more!

How much is TOO much?

...and this is just a sampling of my collection. Scary.

Pointless Wastes of Time

Sometimes, I think that I want to buy a new video game...then I recall that there are several games of which I am technically still in the middle...

Final Fantasy II (GBA)
Final Fantasy III (DS)
Final Fantasy IV (GBA) (close to done)
Final Fantasy V (GBA) (actually, I haven't started this one yet)
Final Fantasy VII (PS) (In Japanese, no less)
Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2)
Final Fantasy XII (PS2) (also in Japanese)
(I sense a theme here)

Sonic Rush (DS)
Castlevania (PS2)
Puzzle Quest (DS)
StarCraft (PC)

Yeesh. I think I might just stick with books for my fresh new entertainment needs. Well, that and DVD rentals of course.