The DJ Max series is practically the only game I play on my PSP cos it's ultimately convenient to play on the go, and the music is nice. So far I've played 5 different versions (in order) - DJ Max Clazziquai, DJ Max Portable, DJ Max Portable Fever, DJ Max Black Square and DJ Max Hot Tunes. I didn't unlock all the songs except for Clazziquai cos that's actually a really tough feat in itself, but I've heard a good number of songs in total. Now for fun and as the last post of this year, here's my my list of top 10 favorite DJ Max songs (NOT in order!!). =)
This piece is from Clazziquai edition. The first time I heard it I wasn't impressed. To top it off, this song is way too easy no matter which difficulty level you play at. However, the more I listen to the song by itself without playing the game, the better it gets. It's a sad yet beautiful piece. I may not know what the lyrics mean, but I can feel the emotions from the melody itself. A good song to use for sad music videos.
This piece is from Black Square edition and is undoubtedly the most epic piece in the entire DJ Max series (of those I've heard). It's a very unique piece with a mystical aura, and it's also very fun to play on any mode. The first ten seconds introduces you to the song, and then it goes into a short ominous phase as if illustrating a disaster/problem. Next, the harp (I think?) comes in with a light magical feel, and then it enters the phase which sounds more light hearted and optimistic, and eventually it warps into something else creepy, and then a battle-like phase before finally concluding with a sad end. Very emotional, very beautiful.
My first favorite from Clazziquai edition, which is the very first DJ Max game I played. I'm a sucker for upbeat, happy and catchy tunes. ^_^ This song is easy on all modes... until the second season patch introduces a remixed version for 6B mode. The remixed version is harder/more fun to play, but I find the original version much nicer.
This piece is featured in many editions, but it's originally from the first DJ Max Portable. Again, it's an upbeat, happy song, but surprisingly the first thing that caught my attention was the rap and not the melodic part sung by the girl. I dunno why but the rap parts put a smile on my face ^_^ Game wise, this song is very easy on Clazziquai but considerably hard on others (hard style), especially in 6B or 8B mode.
My #1 favorite from the first DJ Max Portable. It's a real shame and disappointment this song is never featured in any other edition. I kinda find it hard to describe this piece cos the closest word I can come up with is "mysterious" and I don't feel that's quite enough/correct. Anyway, it's a nice and interesting song and it's fun to play on all modes as well.
This piece is from the first DJ Max Portable and featured in some other editions. Now I gotta admit I dunno of the original Piano Concert No.1 by the real Tchaikovsky, but this one sure kicks a lot of ass considering just how interesting it sounds. It even sounds epic at the beginning. You most prolly won't like it in just one hearing, cos I didn't. LOL. I started liking it the more I play/hear it cos it's really both interesting and fun to play and listen to.
This piece is from DJ Max Fever and Hot Tunes and I'm pretty sure it's easily everyone's favorite. Personally it's my top 3 favorite DJ Max piece of all time and all it took was a single hearing. It starts off medium-paced and soothing and slowly picks up speed towards the end where it finishes with a climax. Simply beautiful. =)
Also from DJ Max Fever and Hot Tunes, by the same awesome composer as Divine Service. It's really hard to describe this piece but it's really good and interesting, so I guess all I can say is give it a try and see what you think. Problem is, it prolly takes several hearings before you'd grow to like it. Playing the game helps too cos this piece is really fun to play especially towards the end. It's actually really hard on Hot Tunes too.
This piece is from Black Square edition. Sweet and light hearted with a thick school girl and holiday feel. Definitely unsuitable for those whose eat heavy metal and the like for breakfast. Game wise, this piece is considerably easy on all modes.
(Note: This song is no longer under my Top 10 favorites. It's been replaced by 'Phantom of Sky', which is listed under this blog post instead. 'Higher' now goes under Top 20 favorites.)
This piece is featured in several editions but I forgot which the first is. Again, I find it hard to describe this piece so please pardon my lack of skills at reviewing music ^^; To be honest I have no idea how house music sounds like but if this is any representation of it, it must mean it's pretty awesome. =D It's not outwardly epic like Proposed, Flower Wolf part 2 or beautiful like Divine Service, but it's got its own unique style and feel. Again, it will prolly take more than one hearing to grow to like it.
Lastly... It's time to say Happy New Year!!! Hope everyone have a good/better year ahead of them!!
29th Dec 2010, Wednesday
Game rant: Super Street Fighter IV
I've played 60+ hours of this game by now and I thought I'd write one more post before the year ends. I first touched this game about 3 months ago but I didn't practice/play it regularly until about a month ago thanks to someone's joystick. =P Before that I practiced at the arcade's unofficial SSF4 machine a token lasts you 5 minutes of any play mode. At that time, all I practiced was Ryu and Viper, so lemme just comment on the characters I've 'learned' in order. =)
== Ryu ==
I asked to learn this guy first cos he's a standard shoto character with the three standard shotokan moves hadouken, shoryuken and tatsumaki senpuukyaku. For a super noob I kinda found it necessary to start off with someone who's at least got a fireball and uppercut so that'd be Ryu. =P When I just started with him, the one thing I was fixated on learning was his "shoryuken FADC metsu hadouken", which if you think about it is a necessary execution skill for many other characters. Even though it took a while to master, it was actually a fun process. Some people say Ryu weakened in this Super version but since I don't play the original/vanilla version it's not something I can tell, and as far as I'm concerned, he's a 'stable' character and it can't go all that wrong using him.
== C.Viper ==
I chose to learn Viper secondly as a challenge. Everyone had warned me she's hard, but it's not like I'd know just how hard it is before giving it a try and so I did. The first thing I had wanted to learn with her was "seismic hammer + high jump cancel into burning kick" cos that seems to be her most basic/standard combo. Luckily for me that wasn't too hard, but the next one one that involves just adding an ultra (Burning Time) after the same combo frustrated me enough. >_>; Even now I still can't do this 3 out of 10 times against a player/CPU. Sigh... Well, I gotta admit Viper's not easy. Just becos I can do a few moves here and there doesn't mean I can survive a match using her. She practically has the lowest win rate among everyone I use, especially after I realize she's got really poor reach with her punches and kicks. LOL. But! She is a good challenge. The sense of achievement I get when I do manage to land combos on any moving enemy is incomparable to the rest. XD But that's just me. =P
== Abel ==
No one told/advised/recommended me to use him. I just decided on my own to give him a try and I'm glad I did. Abel is surprisingly very easy to pick up for newbies as his basic combos are easy in execution. However, professionally mastering this guy requires more brains than execution skills cos he's a grappler, and I'm really bad at the brains part. LOL. Knowing how to do his combos is one thing, but knowing how to get to the enemy is another. Regardless, Abel is still noob-friendly thanks to the variety in his moves. Though Akuma has something similar, Abel is the only SF4 character who has the ability most similar to King of Fighters's "AB roll", which can be used to "roll past" fireballs or the opponent. The EX version of some of his moves also automatically absorb one hit and noobs can use that to their advantage in a noob battle. LOL It also helps a lot that unlike Ryu and Viper, it doesn't take much for a noob to learn how to link a combo into Abel's ultra. Ryu's require FADC, Viper's requires high jump cancel plus additional timing, Abel's just requires a 2-hit crouch hard punch. XD
== Chun Li ==
Chun Li is the only charge character I use in all of SSF4. The charge time required in Street Fighter is longer than King of Fighters and coming from the KOF side I find it very hard to judge the minimum charge time for characters in Street Fighter, resulting in overcharge or undercharge that screws me up in a match. Still, I decided to pick up Chun Li for one very convincing reason - she's perfect at footsies. I don't usually even play footsies and I'm definitely not into long distance footsy like Dhalsim, but I've seen a lot of Chun Li before I started playing this game and I like her style of mid-distance footsy. =) From what I've learned, she doesn't have a huge variety combos. For the most part, you just gotta know when and how to 'counter' the opponent with her individual air and ground punches and kicks, and how good you can be at that depends on your own reaction time and match up experience.
== Cody ==
Again, no one recommended Cody to me. I just picked him up cos he's cute =P However, there's no one to teach me Cody so I had to figure him out on my own, most of it through the 'trials' in the game. As a result of that, I do only two different combos with him no matter who I'm up against. It actually kinda works against people of the same noob level, but it's pretty silly. ^^; There's really no variety and mind games involved in my play style and you'll figure me out in 20 seconds. XD Still, Cody's pretty fun. I just need to find what other tricks and tactics he's got. =)
== Akuma ==
Akuma was actually the third character I learned cos of my boy, but I really couldn't make it with him at that time so I put him aside temporarily and went back to him only a few days ago. Akuma is another shoto character, a strong one at that with a bigger variety of moves. However, to balance that out he has less health and easily gets stunned, which goes to say he's not really meant for noobs, not when you're up against a human player anyway. Although, he's fun for personal training or practice against CPU cos of his fancy combos. =) Sadly, it'll prolly be a long time before I can get to play with my friends again.
Other characters I've tried but kinda fail at for now:
Rufus, Juri, Ibuki, Ken
Characters I plan to learn/in the midst of learning:
Cammy, Ibuki, Guy, Ken, Yun, Yang
24th Dec 2010, Friday
Early Xmas gathering at Andrew's
The KOF gang held a small gathering at Andrew's place to celebrate an early Christmas just yesterday. Of course, all we really wanted was an excuse to party. =P All the food was prepared by Andrew and Yuki so special thanks to the both of them.
Preparing/heating up the food + dinner took some time. There was really quite a lot of food, and the chicken chop was bloody damn huge I could barely eat a quarter of it. XD Everything but the fries was good, but the best thing was still the scrambled eggs that Andrew made for supper. ^__^! I dare say it's better than the one from MacDonald's Big Breakfast set. XD!!
After dinner, and after everyone has arrived (cos some were late), we finally gathered all the presents under the mini tree to proceed with our gift exchange. Yuki suggested that we go with the "open number" system where everyone chooses a number between 0-5 and the total sum will define who's the first/next person to choose a gift from the 'pile'. This is one of two of the most entertaining moments of the day and here's the footage. XD (There's subs for those who may not understand our language =P)
(If you can't view the video above, you can view it here on youtube)
The other most entertaining moment involves Andrew's mystery present. If you've seen the video above, you'd see that everyone was curious about what that odd looking package might possibly encase. Yuki was the one who picked it so unfortunately for her she'd have to go through a torturous process of opening it to find out what just what it is... or if there's even anything in it. LMAO!!!
(If you can't view the video above, you can view it here on youtube)
Of the 9 guests (excuding the host), 6 planned to stay over till morning but we gotta admit there's nothing to do other than play the PS3. Another friend brought his PS3 along so four people could play at two different stations, one in Andrew's room and one in the living room. All of us (except Yuki) were in the Super Street Fighter 4 mood though so it was practically a SSF4 night. Two of them eventually eventually fell asleep for a few hours but the rest stayed awake just marathon'ing the game. Talk about 'no life'. =P
Regardless, it was fun. I can't even remember when the last time I hung out at a friend's place with a bunch of people was! I'm really glad to have been able to enjoy hanging out like this again!! I hope you people reading this enjoy your Christmas too! Merry Christmas!! Go wild!! XD!
19th
Dec 2010, Sunday
Anime rant: Fairy Tail
*Whistles* How damn long has it been since I last wrote about anime?? XD I have a feeling it's been a year or so and the last thing I wrote about was probably Antique Bakery. XD Well anyway, I finally started watching something new cos I was too bored at one point and I just had to watch something when there wasn't enough One Piece for me. For starters, let me just rant a little about how this all began:
How did you first know/hear about Fairy Tail?
I don't remember this a 100% but I kind of recall seeing the manga at Kinokuniya (local Japanese bookstore) and going "WTF is this!? Why does the art look so One Piece!??!?!"
Does the similarity to One Piece in the style of art bother you?
At first yes, cos I know people are bound to start comparing and bashing whoever it is they're biased against. But then I heard they both went to the same manga school or had the same teacher or something, and the more I look at the characters the less One Piece-esque they get so I got over it.
What made you start watching this series?
I know of two friends who like it a lot.
One of them told me it's very good while the other couldn't stop posting Fairy Tail-related facebook status updates. Having come from the One Piece fandom, naturally I'm skeptical when someone blatantly tells me "Fairy Tail is GOOD!" cos of their 'rivalry' due to the similarity in art. And if someone tells me that in my face, I feel (kind of) obliged to see it for myself whether it really is good, as far as my opinion is concerned anyway. It's kind of like a challenge, y'know? The same way/reason I watched the American TV series LOST, cos someone told me it's better than HEROES (season one). lol. If it really turns out to be good, I get to enjoy a new series. If it's bad, I can tell myself "I knew nothing beats One Piece." All gain, no loss. Why not? =D
So what's Fairy Tail about?
I've only seen 18 episodes so I can only comment on the story thus far, but 18 episodes is enough to give you a gist of what the series is gonna be about/like for most of its lifespan, if not all. If you can only use one word or term to summarize a series, Naruto would be "ninjas", Slam Dunk would be "basketball" and Fairy Tail "magicians".
The series starts off by explaining that magic and magicians are common in this world, and that there are many guilds around for these magicians to serve and work under, much like a regular job. "Fairy Tail" is the name of the (in)famous guild the four main characters are from. Magicians 'make a living' by earning cash rewards upon completing (random) missions selectable from the mission board (poster board) in the guild. These missions are ranked and could range from anything from finding a lost cat to saving a village from certain damnation, and most prolly eventually 'save the world', you name it.
I don't know whether and how far the story may drift away from this 'mission-based' direction down the road, but it's clear that all they need to do to add another arc/chapter to the series is to simply pick a poster and start a new mission.
Now introducing the main characters...
== Natsu ==
The biggest main character of the series, I think. Some may argue that the four are equally main, but IMO the first protagonist to appear is the main character whether we like it or not. =P Like a lot of shounen-manga protagonists, Natsu is happy-go-lucky, optimistic, energetic, a little naive and magically powerful (of course). His ability is to manipulate fire.... Uh...... 'kay. He is completely immune to fire attacks and eats flames for breakfast, literally. Consuming flames in battle helps him regain HP as well.
== Lucy ==
Lucy bumped into Natsu during his little journey to find his master a.k.a. father, a dragon. Yar, you didn't read that wrong. After a small turn of events, Natsu brought her to Fairy Tail, the guild she's been desperately searching for, and became a member thereafter. Lucy is much like Natsu in personality, except she's a fraction less optimistic and magically so-so. lol. She is what they call a "stellar spirit magician", which involves not casting elements whatsoever out of her hands but collecting keys which allow her to summon 'spirits' from another dimension and make them do the fighting for her. Uh......'kay. Of course, they say that the stronger her magical power, the stronger the spirits. Well, whatever. Practically all the spirits that have been shown in the 18 episodes I've seen so far are made to act/look/sound either humorous or cute, but gawd... lemme just say IMO she's the least impressive character of the four be it character, skill or impact.
== Gray ==
Every male protagonist needs a rival and this is the guy. Their rivalry is friendly, but Natsu and Gray do bicker and fist fight a lot for random trivial reasons, especially when they're in the comfort of their guild. Generally, however, he's laid back and relatively calm. Gray manipulates ice, which he first learned from his deceased master when he was young. As part of training, he had to stay half naked in the snow/cold and this somehow evolved into his odd habit of randomly/ suddenly becoming half-naked, left with just his boxers, at any time. (This acts as a running gag throughout the series.) It's not surprising to say this but Gray is pretty much 90% of the reason why I'm still watching this series (for now).
== Erza ==
The strongest female magician in Fairy Tail. Also the most feared due to her strict nature; Natsu and Gray had the biggest reaction when they heard she returned from a mission. She utilizes what they call 'requip magic', which basically allows her to equip any weapon and armor at any given point in time... Uh......'kay. She has a huge variety of weapons and armor at her disposal, and though some of the abilities they grant are pretty 'magical', I still say she's just a warrior. Erza's gags include travelling with an insane amount of luggage and some rare moments of clumsiness.
== Happy ==
The series' mascot, somewhat. He looks like a cat with wings and he loves eating fish, but it's not been explained what he truly is so let's just leave it for now. He's a Fairy Tail magician, yes, and he follows Natsu wherever he goes. Despite its size, Happy is capable of flying while hanging onto a single 'passenger' and when necessary, he's able to fly at whizzing speed as well. As for his magical power... I actually don't remember at all what he can do...! LOL!! He generally plays as a comic relief, and sometimes a comedic double along with Natsu.
My thoughts on the series so far....
Perhaps 18 episodes isn't enough to 'judge' Fairy Tail, but so far I'm really only giving it a B. The story itself so far is still an 'okay'... but what I'm most disappointed with is it in fact the very essence of the series - its so-called "magic". Giving the main protagonist and his rival the element fire and ice is like... wow. How much more original can it get? ._. Natsu's magic is especially boring, and he's the main character for goodness sake. Each time he fights, all you see and all he does is spit or punch the enemy with fullscreen flames. If it's not enough to knock him out, just upsize it. -_- Still, it's not worse than Lucy. I can't bring myself to acknowledge the whole 'stellar spirit magic' thing. It's an embarrassment to 'magic' and 'skill'.
The next thing I don't like is Erza's design. She looks to me like some generic female anime character with red hair, but that's just me. Then again, to be fair, Gray looks pretty generic as well if not for the slightly droopy eyes, and Natsu is less generic only becos of the color of his hair...
Still, I'll continue to watch... unless it gets soooo boring that Gray alone is no longer enough motivation for me. Of course, here's where I'll be honest. Gray motivates me only becos his half-naked tendency and his relationship with Natsu. =3 I know you saw this coming. Nyahahaaa~!! XDXD!!
I was at the arcade again just now watching my boy play SF4 (as revenge against someone who trashed me =P) when I turned around to see and realize that this is a nice shot to steal....
The pic above shows one section of the arcade at Bugis, the place I frequent ever too often for the past 4 months. The machines/games have been moved around alot the past 2 weeks while others have been removed. =( I have a feeling they may turn this area into the LAN area soon... but whatever they do, I hope they keep these machines/games close together so as not to separate the communities. >_<!
== Natsu ==
== Lucy ==
== Gray ==
== Erza ==
== Happy ==
