(no subject)

Last night I found out from a Hula sister out west that my favorite Hawaiian band--Makaha Sons--is finally coming out to do a show in NY. I know those gentlemen very well, and I shot off an email to Uncle Moon in hopes that he will be home in time to get it, to let them know that we'll be there. I've got to grab some tickets today if I can. The only downside to this is that it's the same date as the Wong Fei Hung tourney, and I really, really wanted to go to that. Sifu wanted me to compete in it. I told him I didn't think I was ready. But I still really wanted to go. I haven't been to a tournament since last December, and I had a total blast that time.

Today is a fine and lovely thing. Went to Hula early this morning, roads wet and skies grey, listening to songs on my iPod connected to my tapedeck. Hula was a little slow today. After warmups we talked, well, about Hula and the halau, and eventually we did strength excersizes and ran the Wedding Song again. Why, I don't know, since the wedding was two weeks ago.

Then it was off to Kung Fu even though the school is closed. Lee was already there and we had decided the night before to run our sword form, just the two of us, and then go to lunch. It started to rain really hard, so I unlocked and we went inside on the mats and did broadsword for over an hour. I was sweating by the time we were done, and it was pretty chilly, actually. Afterwards, we went to the Chinese place that Sifu and the students always go to when we want to get something to eat after class. There we talked to the manager about hiring the place for a night this month to hold a benefit for our good friend who is in the hospital. The manager was SUPER sweet and helpful (he always appreciates that we're proponents of Kung Fu, which he knows because we usually come in wearing our shirts with the school's kanji on them,) and we got the date, price, and even our menu all figured out. The food there is the absolute BOMB and they gave us free ice cream afterwards, which was seriously some of the best ice cream I've ever had.

Came home and took the boydogs out for a romp in this crazy weather. Trisky took one look at the sogginess and went right back to bed, like, "Screw that."

Then I took a shower, and now I am happily and shamelessly already in my pajamas, getting ready to feed the dogs and then fire up PS2 and see if I can't retrace my steps in Dirge of Cerberus and find what I lost. I must have saved wrong at some point, because first I had all 3 G reports, and then one got stolen by the stupid, hateful gargoyles. Then I had two. Then I tried to play again, and they stole the G report again. I figured I'd be down to 2 again, but guess what? Now I am down to ONE. In order to get all three, I would have to go all the way back to the last section. And even though it's the only way to watch the OMG SUPER ULTRA MEGA SECRET EXTRA ENDING!! I might have to forego that. It's too much work. Maybe I'll just download said SUMSE ending. Video games are supposed to be fun, damnit.

Someday, someone has to figure out why people are so hungry an hour after stuffing themselves with Chinese food.

(no subject)

Last night I found out from a Hula sister out west that my favorite Hawaiian band--Makaha Sons--is finally coming out to do a show in NY. I know those gentlemen very well, and I shot off an email to Uncle Moon in hopes that he will be home in time to get it, to let them know that we'll be there. I've got to grab some tickets today if I can. The only downside to this is that it's the same date as the Wong Fei Hung tourney, and I really, really wanted to go to that. Sifu wanted me to compete in it. I told him I didn't think I was ready. But I still really wanted to go. I haven't been to a tournament since last December, and I had a total blast that time.

Today is a fine and lovely thing. Went to Hula early this morning, roads wet and skies grey, listening to songs on my iPod connected to my tapedeck. Hula was a little slow today. After warmups we talked, well, about Hula and the halau, and eventually we did strength excersizes and ran the Wedding Song again. Why, I don't know, since the wedding was two weeks ago.

Then it was off to Kung Fu even though the school is closed. Lee was already there and we had decided the night before to run our sword form, just the two of us, and then go to lunch. It started to rain really hard, so I unlocked and we went inside on the mats and did broadsword for over an hour. I was sweating by the time we were done, and it was pretty chilly, actually. Afterwards, we went to the Chinese place that Sifu and the students always go to when we want to get something to eat after class. There we talked to the manager about hiring the place for a night this month to hold a benefit for our good friend who is in the hospital. The manager was SUPER sweet and helpful (he always appreciates that we're proponents of Kung Fu, which he knows because we usually come in wearing our shirts with the school's kanji on them,) and we got the date, price, and even our menu all figured out. The food there is the absolute BOMB and they gave us free ice cream afterwards, which was seriously some of the best ice cream I've ever had.

Came home and took the boydogs out for a romp in this crazy weather. Trisky took one look at the sogginess and went right back to bed, like, "Screw that."

Then I took a shower, and now I am happily and shamelessly already in my pajamas, getting ready to feed the dogs and then fire up PS2 and see if I can't retrace my steps in Dirge of Cerberus and find what I lost. I must have saved wrong at some point, because first I had all 3 G reports, and then one got stolen by the stupid, hateful gargoyles. Then I had two. Then I tried to play again, and they stole the G report again. I figured I'd be down to 2 again, but guess what? Now I am down to ONE. In order to get all three, I would have to go all the way back to the last section. And even though it's the only way to watch the OMG SUPER ULTRA MEGA SECRET EXTRA ENDING!! I might have to forego that. It's too much work. Maybe I'll just download said SUMSE ending. Video games are supposed to be fun, damnit.

Someday, someone has to figure out why people are so hungry an hour after stuffing themselves with Chinese food.

On the completion of Dirge of Cerberus

When I sat down earlier and fired up PS2, I had no idea I'd be writing this tonight. After interruption upon interruption, I realized that I was actually down to the last few battles of the game. What does it say about the game when the final boss battles are the easiest things in the entire game? I struggled more with mini-bosses. I wiped these guys out--especially the very last--without breaking a sweat and took very little damage.

And then watched the ending, and the SUPER SECRET MEGA ULTRA ENDING or whatever it was. On my computer. Because the game ate TWO of my G reports, wtf.

Thoughts:

Voice acting: Not the best. Aside from the fact that Steve Burton was still Cloud, and I think that he was a very fine Cloud, and with the other exception of Rosso, who at least was interesting, I mostly hated the voice acting. Vincent sounded like your generic tough guy, only much more retarded. He actually sounded unintelligent. Lucrecia sounded like a ditzy drama queen, but maybe that was the most fitting voice. Lucrecia pretty much was a ditzy drama queen. The worst by far were Hojo and Nero. Hojo was your basic cliche mad scientist, except that he sounded like he was going through puberty. Nero just sounded like a whiney, emo psycho wannabe. It's funny how a voice can really ruin a character for you. I could not take any of his screen time seriously.

Graphics: Yup, they were good. Cut scenes, in-game cut scenes, and gameplay graphics were alld ecent. But by this point, they had better be.

Saving: Sucked big time.

The plot: I don't know, dude. It didn't seem to fit the overall feeling of Final Fantasy VII. I did love the parts with ShinRa mansion, I did love the stuff that involved Reeve, but they never really expanded on that. They could have; it was a short game. It almost seemed like two games, in fact, the first half was so different from the second. ( The massive spoiler major plot twist... )

I pretty much liked that twist, as cliche as it was. ( The ending before the credits... )

I'm sorry, I know she's supposed to be nineteen, but physiologically she's ten, and that's just badong. ( The SUPER MEGA ULTRA SECRED ENDING! )

So, even though it was an interesting thing to see, I mean visually really so neat, it didn't have to be done. I assume it means that there will be another game, but for one thing, ( spoiler, )

and for another, how far into the ground are they going to run the FFVII machine? Don't get me wrong, I will look forward to, squeal over, and buy another FFVII game, just because I have to. But Squeenix should really take a page out of Nintendo's book and do like they do with Legend of Zelda: build on the myth, make better, forward-thinking games, instead of gaidens and spinoffs. What's next? A game with Yuffie Kisaragi? A game where Cait Sith sneaks around, god prevent it?

None of which is to day that I though it was a bad game. I spent some fun hours playing it and I gloried in reliving some of the old FFVII world. Seeing the ShinRa mansion rendered so beautifully was completely awesome. Vincent being Pretty Angst Machine was gratifying on some levels. Shooting stuff was fun, blowing stuff up was even more fun, and I got perverse joy out of critical hits to the head through the sniper scope. (I don't know exactly what that says about me, but I doubt it's anything healthy.)

I missed a hell of a lot of the memory capsules. I doubt if you can go back and shoot them to get the scenes they save for you. I think you have to finish the game with them, and there's no way I'm doing the whole damned thing over again. Not for a few years, at least. ;)

I heard the extra missions were loads of fun, but I just tried the first one twice and died within two minutes. WTF with not having potions and stuff?!

On the completion of Dirge of Cerberus

When I sat down earlier and fired up PS2, I had no idea I'd be writing this tonight. After interruption upon interruption, I realized that I was actually down to the last few battles of the game. What does it say about the game when the final boss battles are the easiest things in the entire game? I struggled more with mini-bosses. I wiped these guys out--especially the very last--without breaking a sweat and took very little damage.

And then watched the ending, and the SUPER SECRET MEGA ULTRA ENDING or whatever it was. On my computer. Because the game ate TWO of my G reports, wtf.

Thoughts:

Voice acting: Not the best. Aside from the fact that Steve Burton was still Cloud, and I think that he was a very fine Cloud, and with the other exception of Rosso, who at least was interesting, I mostly hated the voice acting. Vincent sounded like your generic tough guy, only much more retarded. He actually sounded unintelligent. Lucrecia sounded like a ditzy drama queen, but maybe that was the most fitting voice. Lucrecia pretty much was a ditzy drama queen. The worst by far were Hojo and Nero. Hojo was your basic cliche mad scientist, except that he sounded like he was going through puberty. Nero just sounded like a whiney, emo psycho wannabe. It's funny how a voice can really ruin a character for you. I could not take any of his screen time seriously.

Graphics: Yup, they were good. Cut scenes, in-game cut scenes, and gameplay graphics were alld ecent. But by this point, they had better be.

Saving: Sucked big time.

The plot: I don't know, dude. It didn't seem to fit the overall feeling of Final Fantasy VII. I did love the parts with ShinRa mansion, I did love the stuff that involved Reeve, but they never really expanded on that. They could have; it was a short game. It almost seemed like two games, in fact, the first half was so different from the second. ( The massive spoiler major plot twist... )

I pretty much liked that twist, as cliche as it was. ( The ending before the credits... )

I'm sorry, I know she's supposed to be nineteen, but physiologically she's ten, and that's just badong. ( The SUPER MEGA ULTRA SECRED ENDING! )

So, even though it was an interesting thing to see, I mean visually really so neat, it didn't have to be done. I assume it means that there will be another game, but for one thing, ( spoiler, )

and for another, how far into the ground are they going to run the FFVII machine? Don't get me wrong, I will look forward to, squeal over, and buy another FFVII game, just because I have to. But Squeenix should really take a page out of Nintendo's book and do like they do with Legend of Zelda: build on the myth, make better, forward-thinking games, instead of gaidens and spinoffs. What's next? A game with Yuffie Kisaragi? A game where Cait Sith sneaks around, god prevent it?

None of which is to day that I though it was a bad game. I spent some fun hours playing it and I gloried in reliving some of the old FFVII world. Seeing the ShinRa mansion rendered so beautifully was completely awesome. Vincent being Pretty Angst Machine was gratifying on some levels. Shooting stuff was fun, blowing stuff up was even more fun, and I got perverse joy out of critical hits to the head through the sniper scope. (I don't know exactly what that says about me, but I doubt it's anything healthy.)

I missed a hell of a lot of the memory capsules. I doubt if you can go back and shoot them to get the scenes they save for you. I think you have to finish the game with them, and there's no way I'm doing the whole damned thing over again. Not for a few years, at least. ;)

I heard the extra missions were loads of fun, but I just tried the first one twice and died within two minutes. WTF with not having potions and stuff?!