I can’t stay up past 11 anymore
By Amanda | June 27, 2008
I am pretty much exhausted, but am adjusting to the non-school, full-time working life. It’s weird knowing I don’t have to feel guilty if I read a book of my own choosing rather than something I think I should be reading for a class which doesn’t exist. Knowing that doesn’t actually stop me from feeling guilty, but in the back of my mind I know I am justified in my decision to read anything I want now!
I have a really long commute and Etrian Odyssey II has been keeping me company on the train and bus. It completely blows my expectations out of the water and I love all the improvements made to it. The new classes are especially great. Beast allowed me to kiss my boring Protector goodbye (Perpetua, you will be missed). My guild, Deadpoet, rolls five deep with Homer the Landsknech, Dante the Ronin, Sappho the Medic, Snorri the Gunner, and Guinefor the Beast (the last “t” on “Guinefort” wouldn’t fit, but “Guinefor” is how they pronounce it in the French movie “The Sorceress,” so that works for me). Chaucer the Troubadour is currently bench-warming at the moment, but I hope to bring him back in at some point since his profile portrait is just too enthusiastic to leave out of my group!
The new Warp Points are very convenient; they’re like the stratum warps but they only allow outgoing trips and only one can be activated at a time — so less backtracking through the first 2 floors once you find the first point on the 3rd floor, and then a later one makes trips back to the boss much easier. I also like what they did to FOEs, the game’s visible and active balls of light that represent mini-boss type encounters (watch this video to understand). It introduces and encourages the training and use of FOE manipulation skills in addition to throwing new FOE behaviors just to make them less predictable; things such as FOEs that cannot be tracked on the map, or FOEs that fly and pass over walls. Some classes can stun FOEs, some can lure them, or you can just rely on items to do either for you. It’s more interesting than just attacking them all head on since it makes you much more cautious of what they might be capable of. FOEs are scary…
The mapping additions are wonderful as well. I make liberal use of the new cardinal arrow markers, shortcut markers, color-coded item spawn points, and the ever-useful [!] icon. I can be satisfied with my maps now and not have to worry about confusing the conventions used on one floor with those forced on another due to lack of icons (some of the warping floors drove me nuts in EO1).
Onward, to the Third Stratum!
Topics: Games, Uncategorized | No Comments »
I (will) roll 20s
By Amanda | June 6, 2008
Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition just came out! I think this is my chance to finally get into the game. The online management elements intrigue me the most. They seem helpful. To be honest, I’ve wanted to try my hand at being a Dungeon Master ever since listening to Dieselboy’s album of the same name (which is really good, I must say). It’s true! But I never really tried. The books were so expensive and plentiful; I didn’t even know where to begin. Getting in on the ground-floor of a new release seems enticing to me. I just need to find friends with free time.
In addition, Penny Arcade just posted a podcast of them and Scott Kurtz playing the game. It’s pretty damn hilarious. It looks like I’m not the only one that hasn’t played D&D before. Gabe is a newbie, too.
Topics: Games | 1 Comment »
It’s a Wonderful Life
By Amanda | May 26, 2008
So like everyone else, I’ve gotten hooked on The World Ends With You; a non-sequel, non-remake, non-spin-off Square Enix RPG– if you can imagine such a thing. Don’t get me wrong, I love remakes, but it’s nice to see a completely new IP from them.
I had a lot of difficulty with this game at first. The touch screen battle system felt unreliable and clunky, not to mention the stress of having to keep up with the action on the top screen at the same time as the bottom left me not having fun at first. But once I learned to relax and ignore the top screen until I felt comfortable with it, I found the game much more enjoyable. It really opens up when you are able to start collecting more pin abilities, and the enjoyment especially ramps up when the fashion aspect of the game is made available to you. I find that I can’t get enough of collecting brand clothes and their attached abilities in order to dress Neku to either match or influence the in-game Shibuya’s trends, resulting in nice attack power bonuses if pulled off right.
And another initial turn-off is the main character himself. Neku starts out acting like an annoying twit. But really, stick with it. He gets much, much better. He develops and really grows on you. I’m glad they didn’t try to force the “I don’t care” attitude for an intolerable amount of time. The other characters you come across can sort of start out just as dis-likable as Neku, but they also go through the same transformation in front of your eyes as you play. It keeps you wanting to progress the story just to see where each character is going to be taken.
The art is great, too. Tetsuya “More Belts and Zippers” Nomura’s style works much better in this setting than in Final Fantasy.
Definitely a nice change of pace.
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Appeal to the Great Spirit
By Amanda | May 20, 2008
So on a whim I ended up going to the Museum of Fine Arts yesterday. I decided to go mostly because I have a Hellenistic Art and Culture final exam coming up (in a couple of hours from now, actually) and I wanted to see if there was anything of interest to me at the museum. Turns out there isn’t. I don’t know if it’s because the Alexander/Hellenistic stuff is packed away due to the renovations or if it’s because they don’t have any in the first place. I basically found some coins but that was about it. Even the Ptolemies were under-represented. Oh well.
The trip wasn’t a bust though. I got to see the El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III exhibt I had been itching to see. The works were extraordinary and most of them quite massive in size. I really liked El Greco’s pieces. And the collections of paintings of St. Francis were quite moving. I got a nice little postcard of El Greco’s Annunciation that’s hanging on my wall now. I’ll probably be going back in a couple of weeks when my family is here for graduation. When I go back I plan to rent one of those guide headphones so I can hear more about the background of each painting. And hopefully on my next visit the gallery won’t be overwhelmed with noisy high school brats who couldn’t give a shit about being there.
You’re not allowed to take photos of the special exhibits, but I got some shots from my explorations of the rest of the museum. Some of them are kind of blurry. The MFA doesn’t allow flash photography or tripods, so I had to make due with a bumped up ISO/Exposure and some careful breathing. You can find the images on my Flickr.
One thing that I saw there that really excited me was this:
It was an actual tauroctony! “Mithras slaying the bull.” You see, my senior capstone involved researching the influence of Roman sun-cults on early Christian images and practices. The Mysteries of Mithras constituted a bulk of what I read up on, along with Elagabalus’ and Aurelian’s imperial cults of Sol Invictus. The tauroctony is the centerpiece of any mithraeum, the Mithras cult’s place of worship, and it is thought to constitute the whole dogma of the cult itself– but we don’t know exactly what it means because literary attestation is practically nil. So basically scholars will guess and argue about what the tauroctony really means until something explaining it is found. The MFA’s tauroctony is more simplistic than they can be, lacking in some of the array of zodiac symbolism found on other examples — not to mention poor Mithras is missing his head — but it a fine example none the less. I was so happy to see it!
Topics: Fan-girl, Art | 3 Comments »
Eatin’ Pie in the Shire
By Amanda | May 19, 2008
I’ve been enjoying my most recent attempt at playing The Lord of the Rings Online. Before now my World of Warcraft binging kind of distracted me from getting invested in any other MMOs, but my desire to play WoW has tapered off significantly in the past year and I am finally at a point where even expansion information doesn’t get me excited anymore. Whereas the trickle of information concerning LOTRO’s coming expansion actually has perked my ears, even though I didn’t play the game. I decided to give it a go.
I’m having a lot of fun with LOTRO so far. I should have given it more of a chance sooner. The game is also helping me experience a kind of Tolkien revival. I read the original LOTR trilogy back right before the movies were coming out, so much of the detail is lost. I plan to give them a re-read once I finish up The Hobbit, which I sadly never read as a kid. The Hobbit definitely has a different feel to it compared to my memories of LOTR. It’s cute. I’m enjoying it. Bilbo is a pretty great character in the book so far. After some reading of it I even tried creating a Male Hobbit Burglar in LOTRO because of his influence, but The Shire quests sort of drove me batty– the Hobbits just want you to gossip, deliver mail, and eat pies! I guess that’s to be expected from Hobbits.
What I am digging the most about the game is Deeds. Oh my, am I OCD in regards to this aspect of the game. Basically they are themed achievements which bestow titles, virtues, and even skills onto your character. Kill 30 wolves, you can now be known as Wolf-Tamer! Get to level 20 without dying? You are now known as Undying! (I didn’t get this one…) The Virtues earned are stat enhancements which stack if you obtain multiples, where you then allocate them to your character into their gradually available Trait slots for a small fee. I even ended up getting a Racial skill trait from killing so many damn goblins. I basically can stealth once every 30 minutes! Yeah, it’s a long cool-down, but I’m a warrior-type (Champion) who can stealth! That’s so awesome!
The exploration Deeds are fun to get as well, though the beautiful in-game environments need no deeds to entice would-be explorers. I’m figuring I should wait for a mount till I go for any of those I missed, though. Walking across LOTRO’s huge zones can take some time. In addition, the music in the game is breathtaking. This is the only MMO I’ve played where I actively turn off my Winamp/Podcasts and prefer the in-game music instead.
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Trip Report: The Tower of Druaga
By Amanda | May 12, 2008
So it seems my reintroduction into anime would start sooner than I anticipated, and the show would be very recent rather than the retro shows I was expecting to catch up on. After I posted the thread in particular about my aims at reviving my anime fan-itude, I noticed that my friend Audra had posted the first episode of a show called The Tower of Druaga: the Aegis of Uruk. The name sounded familiar to me for some reason. I must have skimmed over it while looking at a list of this season’s up-and-coming shows during my search for something to watch. What I found neat was that the studio producing the show, GONZO, is legally releasing episodes online simultaneously with their Japanese airing, complete with English subtitles. You can access them on YouTube or stream some better quality feeds off of Crunchyroll. I find this concept absolutely awesome. It seems like a great way to spread word about the show without working out a TV broadcasting deal and hopefully drum up some DVD sales for those concerned with compression, especially since GONZO produces some really beautiful animation.
The great thing is that this particular show is actually based on a video game. The Tower of Druaga was released by Namco in 1984 for Japanese arcades. It was a big hit over there but not well received over here. This is what it looked like (pictured left). Basically the game consists of a 60-floor tower with pre-determined maze layouts, but randomized keys and items. The player, Gil(gamesh), must find the Blue Crystal Rod, reach the top floor, defeat the demon Druaga, and rescue the maiden. Pretty straight forward hero stuff. The game has lead to many sequels and ports, which leads us to today.
GONZO is currently heading a cross-media promotion with this anime and their recently launched The Tower of Duraga ~ the Recovery of BABYLIM MMO. I’m not sure about any release of the game for the States as of yet, but with Gonzo freely promoting the anime in English I would not be surprised to hear about it down the road.
The show itself is actually quite wonderful. It is foremost a parody– and a hilarious parody at that. Especially the first episode. Any RPG/game cliche you can think of is present; most watchers who are familiar with the genre will notice them. I was laughing aloud quite a few times. Once the first episode comes to a close the true situation and tone of the show becomes clear, but that doesn’t stop later episodes from being just a tongue-in-cheek. So far I find this approach way better than any of the other too-serious game-related animes I’ve seen in the past; i.e. .hack and Ragnarok the Animation. The setting also reminds me a lot of Etrian Odyssey because of how the designated explorers go about exploring the massive dungeon.
Even the opening sequence is a parody in and of itself, showing all of the main characters as if they were taking part in a school drama-dy– which has absolutely nothing to do with the plot at all. It could possibly even be a throwback to GONZO’s popular Full Metal Panic!. And I find the ska-like song addictive.
I found a review of the first episode on an anime blog– though I don’t agree with the guy’s overly-critical stance on the parody aspect the review includes some nice images and will give a general idea of what is going on in the show if you would like more information. I also find it interesting that as of Saturday night (when I was powering through the episodes) The Tower of Druaga didn’t have a thread on SA, hence my not considering it in my quest for what to watch, but one appeared today just as I was about to resort to making one. So it seems word is getting out, which could be good in regards to the possible MMO tie-in. I’d at least give the MMO a shot. Because of watching this I just ordered the PS2 game, Nightmare of Druaga: Fushigi no Dungeon for super-cheap from Amazon because I’m a big fan of Chunsoft and their Fushigi no Dungeon games; I was pleased to find one for Druaga existed.Six episodes have been released so far since its premiere last month, with more coming each week. I definitely plan on keeping up with this one.
Topics: Anime, Games | 2 Comments »
All’s Fair
By Amanda | May 11, 2008
So today was the annual Mayfair in Harvard Square. It was actually supposed to be last week but they ended up getting rained out. Full of food, crafts, kids, dogs, performances, and overpriced crap. It was a rather nice day with clear skies but an unfortunate brisk wind. I didn’t end up getting much: I bought a silver ring with a nice Celtic-style knot design, some cheap books from the COOP’s outside sale, and some chocolate fudge– which I find really hard to get on a normal basis. It was a nice treat and I had a pleasant time overall.
You can find the rest of my pictures from the Fair and surrounding area on my Flickr.
Topics: Cambridge, Events, Food and Drink | No Comments »
Dino Crisis
By Amanda | May 10, 2008
Yesterday at GAMBIT I saw Clara playing a game that looked like a little yellow raptor running across a screen of hills with comets and debris raining down. It reminded me of scene in Disney’s Dinosaur where they are all fleeing the meteors. I had forgotten about the game until tonight when I saw it linked on GameSetWatch in the most recent Best of Indie Games post. It’s called Dino Run and it’s made by Pixel Jam– and it is awesome.
You are a Velociraptor and must run for your life from an encroaching wall of scalding ash and fiery balls of death hurdling towards you– all while dodging and/or eating other dinos, gathering eggs, and jumping over a plethora of pitfalls and dangers. As you go you can eventually use those salvaged eggs in order to access upgrades to your dinosaur; like increased running speed, heightened jump, or added agility. Bones you run across along the way can be used for unlocking bonus material such as wallpapers, mp3s, and icons– I am saving for a Apocalypse wallpaper myself. Small dinos you eat can even be tallied for bonuses towards your score. There are also some dinos who can help you progress, like Pterodactyls giving you a lift or quick Parasaurolophi letting you hitch a ride. And if you donate to the developers you get hats. Yes, hats for your raptor! And there’s even a multiplayer mode for racing other player raptors online.
Topics: Indie, Games | No Comments »
Kicking it Old School
By Amanda | May 10, 2008
So I used to be really into anime when I was younger. Really into anime. Network broadcasts of Sailor Moon hooked me in middle-school, which lead to Dragon Ball Z, Tenchi Muyo, and a fervor for monthly issues of Animerica. I fondly remember the monthly trips down to the local bookstore with my dad to see if the new issues were in, and I also remember distinctly the trip to Yosemite with my then girlfriends where I brought along the just-released first issue of Animerica Extra. My boyfriend/fiance of the past seven years I happened to have met on a Dragonball Z newsgroup (true story). The the annual Otakon excursions that occurred during my first couple years after moving out east always bring back great memories. So you could say I owe the fandom a lot.
But I fell out of it a few years ago. The last show I watched in earnest was Full Metal Alchemist, and even then I didn’t even bother with the movie; the crew hasn’t been to Otakon in a good four years; and my last mainstay to the fandom, manga, tapered off after I realized how much of a useless money-sink graphic novels were– though I habitually check for new volumes of Hellsing. We’ll pop into Anime Boston every other year but not for the same reasons. I guess the part of me that cared about anime was gradually replaced by my scholastic interests while my interest in video games expanded and filled in the rest of the gap.
But lately I find myself occasionally peeking in at the anime boards on the SomethingAwful forums. I don’t even know what I’m looking for exactly but all the shows being discussed look like crap. Why am I even visiting the boards in the first place, though? I think maybe watching Avatar the Last Airbender has done something to me. It seems that the drought of new episodes lately has made me yearn for more episodic-style animated stories to follow.
But recently I did finally find something that piqued my interest: they’re making a new Slayers series. I actually never watched Slayers. And now that I think about it I have no idea why. It was around in full swing during my anime heyday, and I recall seeing a plethora of ads, reviews, etc. Hell, the show Sorcerer Hunters was one of my favorites and it’s the same damn setting. So I fine myself curious why I didn’t feel compelled to watch Slayers.
I think it was because the theme didn’t appeal to me at the time. I never played D&D, didn’t have anyone to play Magic: The Gathering with, I hadn’t read The Lord of the Rings, didn’t play Western RPGs yet, and even then I didn’t start playing JRPGs until FFVII– which was more cyber-punky than fantasy. So I completely bypassed all of the popular fantasy-themed shows: Slayers, Escaflowne, Record of Lodoss War. The aforementioned Sorcerer Hunters I only got into because of TokyoPop running the manga in their magazine when I happened to subscribe to it.
Now that I’m more versed in Western-style fantasy I want to go back and give these shows a shot. I’m guessing they probably don’t age well and that my lack of attention span for TV shows in general will be my undoing in the endeavor, but I’m going to be bugged by it until I at least try.
First I need to watch these two disks of I, Claudius so I can get my Netflix queue moving again!
Topics: Anime, Fan-girl, TV | No Comments »
Final Countdown
By Amanda | May 8, 2008
One more day.
Next Tuesday is my last day of classes. Ever.
Well maybe not ever. I could end up doing grad school at some point. Who knows? But not immediately. Not yet. I need time for my undergrad experience to soak in.
The last links on my ball-and-chain: one Confucian paper, one Christianity test, one Hellenistic final, one Western Civ. final, and one Literature take-home final; and then I am home free. There’s still my pesky capstone to deal with, which is a paper researching the influence of sun cults on early Christianity, but luckily that only requires some editing before it’s complete.
I have to say, my last semester was kind of dull. After taking five Philosophy classes all at once during this previous semester I swore off taking any more. But as a result I got stuck with some pretty uninspired electives and a larger textbook bill. Especially after the school canceled the two courses I anticipated the most– Greek & Roman Tragedy and Critical Studies in Religion. Once those got dropped I found myself scrambling for anything that would fit into my schedule. So my heart really wasn’t into it.
Woe unto me, a Humanities double-major!
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
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