Arbitrary Utopia

This is going to be a fun one.

I don't know why but I finished GEARS of DRAGOON -迷宮のウロボロス-, in the sense that I completed every ending and collected every CG. All I can say is, what a journey it has been. I almost thought I wasn't going to survive the storm of cliches that the game brought to my little world. Once again I was left speechless, or rather too busy laughing at what I perceived to be a lack of sincerity and professionalism on the game writers' part. How they can read their own stories and not fall off their chairs laughing is beyond me, seeing as how my chair almost fell off me and flew straight outside the window.

Gears of Dragoon is a dungeon crawler, much like the classic Wizardry and the newer Etrian Odyssey, except its poorly designed 3D dungeons are painful to look at and frustrating to navigate through. Wait, I was supposed to start with the better aspects of the game first. It's actually a decent game with a surprisingly addictive enchanting system. I probably had more fun crafting and enchanting equipments than rushing through the dungeons just so I could get to the next chapter. The art is alright and some of the music tracks are fairly good, but it's never a good sign if I brought up the art and music so early. Indeed everything else about the game left a pretty bad impression on me, with the most glaring problem being the terrible writing.

It's like they added Conrad just to fill up the space

Ever wondered what happens when the most generic characters come together in a most generic story? Gears of Dragoon comes dangerously close to that. The main character Ladius, who conveniently has amnesia, is irritatingly impetuous and stubborn. Filia, whom I take to be the main heroine since she gets the most scenes, has a repulsively bubbly personality which turns out to be "fake" as she is really an overpowered and emotionless anti-Durga/Rudra (why the Hindi names?) killing machine called Dynamis. Oh and her only flaw is that she can't cook. Bravo Japan, you've done it again. Who'd have thought that it was a bad idea to put a powerful system on someone who would then develop a weak, dependent and unstable personality? Right, Noel?

Next Season

The show goes on even if it weren't what it was meant to be.

First of all and about two four weeks late, but Happy New Year to everyone who frequents or happens upon this quiet corner of the internet. I hope you all find some ways to take it easy in these rather troubled times.

Anyway, a little update on my misadventure in Gun Blood Days. I actually managed to gain the top spot in the Boss Raid and got a Diamond Mitsuki Naruse as my reward. It was a short-lived victory however, as I turned Mitsuki into a much stronger Lunette Gien, but failed limit breaking her and ended up with a mediocre Silver Kyouko Oribe. Others probably thought I was a bit crazy. On the bright side, I did complete collecting the Witch Girls, with the last two, the one-eyed Ozu Karuma (the only one with a very odd name, probably a reference to the Wizard of Oz) and the blue-haired Ao Mizuki coming in after a streak of good draws. Now with the witches and Hisumi who came about when I least expected, as well as a Royal Bronze Himeko all in the bag, I have more or less collected all the cards I wanted. Time to quit. Other than that, an unlikely alliance formed between us and Saber, both in and outside the actual storyline, was an amusing recent development. I was worried that the already dominant Japanese Liberation Front, commonly referred to as 'Crows' due to their logo, might take that chance away from us. But the deal went through for us quite smoothly in the end. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" indeed.

Very Slow Scene

Chances are I will only get to do this once in our lifetime.

Once again we have come to the end of another year, almost abruptly so for me. I finished my project at last, which turned out pretty mediocre since I lost most of my motivation for it about halfway through. My supervisor was impressed with my presentation though. He actually made me chuckle a bit when he told me that I sounded more professional than usual. Personally I'm more pleased with the fact I don't have to wear my leather shoes again for quite a while. Hopefully never.

My friend sent me this Luka nendoroid as a birthday gift a couple of months ago, along with a humorous card (a cat rocking out "Happy Birthday" on a flying V). I was going to buy a Luka plushie ages ago but it was sold out every time I went to check, and after a while I just kind of forgot about it. Something just wasn't meant to be. Anyway I've actually got another present coming but like most of my preorders, won't be here till next March. It's probably worth the wait though.

Momentary Life

Enjoy your stay. I actually had the time and energy to read through Tokyo Babel, which I had been sort of anticipating since the start of the year. With an impressive voice cast and a post-apocalyptic setting involving angels and demons, the game has quite a bit of potentials but ultimately and predictably fails to deliver fully.

Pew pew beam attack!

The world suddenly came to an end. Angels were chased out of heaven, demons lost their home to a deluge, and human (parallel) worlds began to collapse. With nowhere to return to and no one to lead them, many angels and demons committed suicide. Amidst the chaos, the Archangel Michael sacrificed himself to create Tokyo Babel, a floating octahedron purgatory where the surviving angels and demons took refuge in.

"Son of Man, make pilgrimages. Only through the seven pilgrimages will the gates to heaven open once again."

That is God's message. Seven pilgrimages, that is, to ascend all seven levels of Tokyo Babel. Desperate, angels and demons took humans from different worlds to Tokyo Babel in hope of reaching the top of the purgatory, and ascending to heaven through Jacob's Ladder.

However, each level has been taken over by a Ruler, destructive individuals who went mad after hearing the Chorus. To ascend all the levels, the Rulers must be defeated. At the same time, not everyone wishes for things to return to normal; some desire for a permanent end to everything while some seek to change the course of history.

I'm in despair! My missing ahoge has left me in despair!

The story follows Setsuna Tendou (Hiroshi Kamiya), an ordinary-looking boy who is definitely not ordinary, as he battles his way through the purgatory against all odds and searches for the reason of his existence.

Haven't You Got Eyes In Your Head?

Well haven't you?

Anyways moving onto the story of NToJ. Remember Maribel got injured back in TGA when she took Renko to Torifune? Apparently she was diagnosed with delirium caused by some virus that did not exist on Earth. She was quarantined deep in the mountains since the society feared anything that was outside its control. Anyway Renko got the news that Mari had fully recovered, so she went to the sanatorium to meet Mari. Mari complains about how they wouldn't let anyone meet her even though she has no relatives in Japan. Renko asks what Mari's illness really was. Mari says that it's apparently high fever, as well as sleep walking and hallucinations of another world. To which Renko replies, "Eh? Isn't that totally normal to you?"

The two of them then went sight-seeing around Shinsyuu (now Nagano Prefecture), where the sanatorium was. The two of them came across the Zenkou temple, which was caught in the terrible Zenkoushi earthquake. Renko says that back then people thought the dislocations between the temple's main pillar and its base were caused by the earthquake. Of course now they found out it was the result of the wood decaying. However, people would rather keep on calling it the "earthquake pillar" to remind future generations the horror of earthquakes. Mari, however, could see an earthquake that can even deform the entire pillar (Tenshi?).

Heartfelt fancy. Lately not only can Mari see the gaps of boundaries, she can seemingly see the scenery of another world. Furthermore, she can actually move into that world. It was exactly the same back then on Torifune. For Renko it was probably just a dream, but that was reality for Mari. It's because of this, Mari was only one who got injured. The reason she went to the sanatorium was because the doctor thought she was insane. The truth of course is that Mari is perfectly sane, it's just the society cannot accept oddballs like her. Therefore her power must be kept a secret. Renko notices Mari doesn't look too well, Mari says she saw a little too much. When Renko asks her what she saw, Mari replies that she saw Hell (among other things).