Delays...

So, I have the next three entries or so in my countdown as well as a half written blog about anime on my computer, But as of a week or so ago, it's broken. I'm not sure when it will be fixed, or if it can be fixed at all.
 So, untill then I won't be updating this much. I plan to start a diary blog soon, after school stuff dies down,  so at least there will be something.

Until further notice,

Peace out and geek out,

Mikeke352

My top 10 Favorite J-RPG's #7

7) Lunar: the Silver Star (Sega CD, PS1, PSP)

            Ah, Lunar the Silver Star. This is one of those games that I look upon quite fondly. It’s a great game in every incarnation available. But, before I go any further, I think I should mention that the nostalgia factor doesn’t really apply here, as I only started playing this game a few years ago. I had long since been aware of the Lunar games, but hadn’t had the chance to play them until 2009-2010ish. When I bought a Sega CD add on for the Genesis in mid '09, the first game I got to go along with it was Lunar the Silver Star. It had a lot of heart for a little 16-bit RPG, and a good story with good characters. Unfortunately I never got to finish the game on the Sega CD as it broke about five months later.

            The version of Lunar that I really came to love was Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. I have the PSP version as well and the only real difference is that the graphics are a bit nicer. Lunar Silver Star Story Complete has longer, higher quality cut scenes, a full voice acting cast, and more streamlined gameplay. The battle system is very similar to the one used in the Sega CD version and that’s ok, because it works. Your party has a wide area to move around in, and wherever you move to make your attack, that’s where you stop at the end of your turn. In battle you don’t just attack and retreat to your side of the screen, you always have to take movement into account. Different characters have different ranges of movement, so if you select the heroine Luna for example, to use a close range attack on an enemy on the far side of the screen she probably won’t make it that far and just stop along the way, ending her turn. This causes the player to choose moves wisely and it adds a fun strategic element to the game.

            The story for Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is excellent. It takes the story from the Sega CD version and fleshes it out completely. It’s a true hero & heroine story about a boy who seeks adventure and to be like his hero. In this case the young protagonist Alex, sets off on a journey to be the next dragonmaster just like the one before him, the legendary dragon master Dyne who helped rescue the Goddess Althena. He sets off with his friend he has known forever, Luna, and an annoying flying cat-monster thing named Nall. Together the three encounter people and situations that enrich their lives forever. Sound corny? Well, it’s not. The characters are so good and the scenario writing so rich, that even if the base story is a little cliché’ the game is still completely engaging. If you play more than 30 minutes into the game I can almost guarantee that you will be caring about the characters and wanting to know what happens next. And that my friends, is why Lunar: The Silver Star makes the list.

My top 10 Favorite J-RPG's #8

8) Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (PS2, PSP)

            Up until five or six months ago, I had only been peripherally aware of the Shin Megami Tensei (SMT,)series. Then one day on a random trip to Gamestop I spotted the remake of the Persona 1 for the PSP really cheap used and picked it up. Now, while the random encounter rate was annoyingly high and the maze like qualities of several of the buildings sort of pissed me off, I really enjoyed the game world, mythology, and persona system. It’s uniqueness is what kept me playing.

Fast Forward a month or two and I’m totally addicted to Persona 3 portable for the PSP. Seriously, I carried that thing around everywhere to play it in my spare time. It keeps what I like about the first game, improves it and adds on a whole bunch of new elements that just work great. This time around you see enemies in the map screen and the battle go by faster and more enjoyably.

The way you gather and develop personas have changed from the previous games: first you can win persona tarot(ish) cards at the end of battles and fuse them to make complex, powerful personas. Determining what persona you make and how powerful it is depends on the levels of Social Links. This time relying on developing social links between  the hero and the other characters in this game. This means you need to spend time talking to certain characters, and build up personal attributes like charm or academics. It really pulls you in and makes the daily life of the protagonist genuinely interesting.

The graphics are stylish and fun and the story is engaging, albeit dark. You play as a transfer student who has the rare ability to be conscious during a hidden 13^th hour in the day called the dark hour, a time where monsters called shadows wreak havoc. At the school is a team of students who are aware of the “dark hour” and have figured out how to awaken “Personas” to fight for them using a gun-like object they fire at their heads. You join them on investigating the dark hour and trying stop the shadows. That’s about as much as I can saw without spoilers, so you’ll have to take my word for it, it’s really good and really fun.

My Top Ten Favorite J-RPG's #10 & 9

10) Phantasy Star 4 (Sega Genesis)

I’ve always liked the Phantasy star games. They tend to have cool, well developed characters and stories, fun battles, and good pacing. All the games in the original Phantasy Star, series are good, so it was tough to only choose one. In the end however, I have to choose Phantasy Star 4. The first game set up a fun game world and atmosphere, and those traits get built upon and become better with each game. (Except #3. Three is...different.) Phantasy Star 4 takes the best elements from the previous four games and puts them together in one great package.  

            It has great, detailed backgrounds and graphics and sprite animations in and out of battles like Phantasy star 1 did with Master System. The Story and characters are complex, mature, and captivating like in Phantasy Star 2, and… I guess… it goes in unique directions like Phantasy Star 3 does. (But without a near total departure from the established world., like #3 does.) Also, like all the games in the franchise, Phantasy Star 4 has a good soundtrack that makes the most out of the Genesis’s limited sound capabilities.

            The only reason this game isn’t ranked Higher on my list is because the gameplay isn’t very unique. It’s pretty run of the mill turn based combat and standard exploration. Don’t get me wrong, it truly is a fun, engaging game, but by the fourth installment the core game mechanics haven’t changed much. Nevertheless, it’s an enjoyable experience.

 Screenshots:

 

9) Princess Crown (Sega Saturn)

Ah, Princess Crown. One the absolute, most beautiful looking games on the Sega Saturn. What’s that you say? You’ve never heard of Princess Crown? Well, that’s not surprise. Princess Crown was only released in Japan. I got an import copy a few years back, and it’s surprisingly easy to play if you don’t know Japanese. All od the map text is in English ass well as some other text like signs and such. There’s also a pretty good translation guide on gamefaqs so I didn’t have too much trouble. You may of heard of it’s spiritual sequel, Odin Sphere. Odin Sphere is extremely similar to Princess Crown and was developed by the same team, the main difference is Odin Sphere has faster battles.

Like I said before, Princess Crown is a beautiful game. I might even go as far as to say it’s the prettiest 2D game of the 32 bit generation. It’s made by a joint effort of Sega and Atlus (who has made other games on my list,) ant the development team took full advantage of the Sega Saturn as the 2D powerhouse it was. The sprites move smoothly and the fighting is fun.

The game is technically an Action/RPG, but since the RPG elements are so prominent, I put it on the list anyway. You play as princess Gradiel, a young Princess who is soon to be queen that sets out alone to explore the land she will rule and it’s troubles. Don’t let this fool you though, this isn’t an easy, fluffy, game. You need to have good RPG skills and Action gaming skills to get far. But it’s here that lies my one complaint with the game. The controls in battle are a little bit sluggish, which makes battling a sprinting quick baddie a pain sometimes. But, for the most part, this game is WICKED fun. If you like Odin Sphere you’ll like princess crown, if you can find a copy.

Sample Videos:

My Top Ten Favorite J-RPG Games: Intro

Hello everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve written a new entry, so I figured I should get one started. I was planning on writing two blog entries revolving around anime, (one being on anime that has had an impact on me personally, and the difference between casual anime and anime for serious fans,) but seeing as mid-terms are coming up soon and my two big classes are very writing intensive, I’ve decided to take the easier route and do another top ten list. But don’t worry anime fans out there, both articles will be posted when I have more time. So this brings us to this new top ten list, My top ten favorite RPG’s.

           Anyone who knows me in real life knows that I am a huge J-RPG fan. A large percentage of my game collection is made up of RPG’s, and I’m always on the look out for more. I could seriously play them all day, something that no doubt irks my roommate a bit. ^^;;

Seriously, I have a damn lot of RPG’s and it’s going to be hard to make a final top ten. Here is the list of all my RPG games(including action RPGs and strategy/RPGs:

 Demon Souls

Valkyria Chronices

Resonance of Fate

Eternal Sonata

Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy Origins (FF I & II)

Final Fantasy III

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy IX

Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts II

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

Dragon Quest VIII

Odin Sphere

Persona 1 PSP

Persona 3 FES

Persona 4

Lunar Silver Star Story Complete

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete

Alundra

Shenmue

Shenmue II

Grandia 2

Evolution: World of the Sacred Device

Evolution 2: Far Off Promise

Skies of Arcadia

Phantasy Star Online

E.G.G.

Albert Odyssey

Magic Knight Rayearth

Dragon Force

Shining Force 3

Panzer Dragoon Saga

Princess Crown

Tengai Makyou IV: The Apocalypse

Earthbound Zero

Dragon Warrior

Secret of Mana

Earthbound

Mother 3

Pokemon Diamond

Pokemon White

The World Ends with You

SMT Devil Survivor

Chrono Trigger

FF VII: Crisis Core

Persona 3 Portable

Next Time: Games 10 through 8.

Peace out and geek out,

Mikeke352

Fear Knows No Sense: The Spiral Staircase

This is an EXCELLENT old black and white suspense thriller. It tells the story of young psycho-somatically mute woman named Helen who lives in a small New England town around 1915. There have been several Murders in the town, each victim a young woman with some sort of disability ( a bad leg, "mentally impaired, blind, etc.)people fear for Helen’s safety after yet another “afflicted” woman is found dead, but Helen is determined to not be afraid. She works at a huge, old, Victorian house helping take care of the doddering, bedridden widow, Mrs. Warren. (Ethel Barrymore) Helen is very devoted to keeping Mrs. Warren Company and helping her through out the day. She is also one of the few people Mrs. Warren is truly fond of. Mrs. Warren was a very strong independent woman in her youth, enjoying hunting and camping, and feels embarrassed of her bedridden state, making her irritable and grumpy(er than usual) (Again, Helen is the only person she trusts enough to talk about this with.)

Mrs. Warren tends to ramble in and out of coherency, and during these rambling moments she warns Helen to go far away, to stay somewhere safe away from the murders.  However, Helen being the strong character she is, decides to stay and help. That night, there is a bad storm, and it seems that someone starts toying with the people in the house. This includes Mrs. Warren’s two sons, one a studious professor and the other a free floating playboy, A housekeeper and her husband the handyman, and the professor’s secretary. One of these people is diabolically sneaking around the house, hiding medicines, playing with the lights, and spying on Helen from a distance. After someone disappears, it becomes clear to Helen that someone is after her, and she must defend herself in silence.

During all of this the big question is how do you call for help when you can't speak, and who do you call to when no one can be trusted? Helen is constantly cautious and during the big climax, uses the killer’s view of her as a helpless criminal to get dangerously close to the killer to end it all. The whole plot builds up with a suspenseful confrontation that completely surprised me when I first saw it.
            This is one of my favorite old thriller movies. The acting is excellent. Dorothy McGuire and Ethel Barrymore really steal the show in their performances. The rest of the cast is just as good, but something about those two really drives the movie. The whole mute plot heightens the suspense tastefully, and is far from a gimmick. The cinematography and directing is excellent and sets the mood for every scene and environment perfectly. A few scenes that really stand out are the scenes when Helen first gets to the mansion in the pouring rain and the killer is watching her about to try and make a move in the shadows. For the most part, the movie has aged well over the years, (it being first released in 1946,) but the soundtrack stick out like a sore thumb. There’s a definite overuse of the Theremin, but you basically tune it out after a while. If you like old movies, especially ones like Laura,(1944) (which I already reviewed in my “rough week’ post, if you haven’t read it, go do it now, it’s a great movie.) give this one a shot. You’ll probably love it.

Peace out and geek out,

Mikeke352

Fear Knows no Sense

Recently, I was digging through some DVD’s at this awesome store that sells used and new DVD’s, CD’s, and video games, when I came across two old thriller movies that I absolutely adore, Wait Until Dark, and The Spiral Staircase. After stumbling upon these less-then-widely-known gems, I thought, why not talk about go over each of them a bit for my next blog entry.

Both movies are not only notable for their masterful uses of suspense, but because both films have handicapped protagonists that have an inner power and determination that transcends their perceived helplessness. Both struggle with and ultimately use their disabilities to their advantage at least for a portion of the movie. in Wait Until Dark, the protagonist uses her heightened senses due to blindness to help figure out the truth behind a dangerous conman. In The Spiral Staircase, a period piece set in the early 1900’s a Psycho-somatically mute woman, (meaning the cause for her muteness is mental,) uses the acknowledgment that she can’t call for help to get close enough to trouble to stop it.

The first movie, the 1967 classic, Wait until Dark is new to me. It stars Audrey Hepburn as Susy, a recently blinded woman who is still learning to live without sight. Her husband, a photographer, comes into possession of a doll (unknowingly,) stuffed with heroin during a trip, and it it’s not long before the psychotic Mr. Roat (who was expecting to be delivered the doll in the first place,) tracks it down and hires two con men to help him with an elaborate plan to get it back. What they don’t know is that Susy misplaced the doll and it was stolen by the little girl that lives upstairs complicating things further.

After luring her husband away for an overnight photo shoot, the three crooks begin an elaborate hoax to try and make Susy hand over the doll. The three men come and go into her apartment, trying to trick the poor blind woman into thinking her husband had an affair, then murdered his mistress, and that the doll is evidence. The two con men each play consistent roles in the plot, one pretends to be an old war buddy of the husband to get on Susy’s good side and the other pretends to be a cop to intimidate her. Mr. Roat pretends to be two different people, (at different times,) and this is when things get interesting.

Susy can tell by the sounds of the shoes and the way Roat walks that both his “characters” are the same person. She starts using her other senses more clearly to uncover the plot, which leads to an incredibly tense, climactic showdown: Susy, realizing that Roat killed off the other two men and was tired of playing games with her, smashes all of the lights outside of and inside of her apartment so she has the advantage of using her other senses to the fullest while Roat struggles. For this part of the movie, there is very low lighting and the more traumatic, violent scenes are left to the imagination of the audience.  In fact when this movie was shown in theaters, the lights were dimmed bit by bit until the theater went completely dark to drive home the experience.

Now, I had heard a lot about this movie from some friends who are film buffs, but I had my doubts about how scary this would be, and honestly it’s not too creepy for the first half of the movie. The suspense slowly builds and really takes off for the last 45 minutes. The TV channel Bravo listed this movie’s climax in its top 10 (out of 100) scary movie moments, and I can wholeheartedly say that I agree with them. The ending makes this movie folks. It had me tense, on the edge of my seat and I swear I jumped 3 feet at least 3-4 times through the big showdown. As a whole, this movie is excellent. If you find yourself not too thrilled with the first 20-30 minutes, I urge you to keep watching it all the way through, you won’t be disappointed.

Next Time: A look at The Spiral Staircase

Peace out and geek out,
Mikeke352