Random - Stuff in my Room

Feeling random today and I decided to take a few pics of random things in my room. (Man, I actually had a few other things/topics that I wanted to write about but I forgot what they were! >_<!!!)

1.	Random plushies. The bottom one's a plush of Sirotan from Mother Garden. Bought it 2~3 years ago, hence looks a bit old and slightly out of shape. ^^; The middle one's new - caught it from a UFO machine today thanks to Him. XD Thanks for catching it, you-know-who! ^_^ The top one's a few weeks old, also caught from a UFO machine thanks to the same person. XD!! They're just so damn cuuute!!
2.	Tonberry from Final Fantasy and Duffy from Tokyo Disneysea. XD I got the pink robe for Duffy from one of the local Create A Bear outlets. I named my Duffy bear Juugo, which means 'fifteen' (Japanese) as he's bought on the 15th of April. ^_^! As for Tonberry, I got him on impulse - I was playing FF13 around that time and was fed up fighting against Cactuar, so I randomly decided to get Cactuar's friend/rival that is Tonberry. >_>;
3.	A poster of Yun and Yang I recently bought on eBay (US$31 omg). ^_^!!! I have such an incurable soft spot for twins... >_O! "How'd you like this?! Get ready!!" *Gives you an abortion punch*
4.	More posters and other random post-able things on my wall. Those small ones of Bleach are actually bookmarks, and the Yun & Yang poster + the hand-drawn picture of K' from King of Fighters (top left), by Eisuke Ogura, artist of KOF XIII, are given to me by Him. Thanks lots, you-know-who! ^_^

Now here's a super random pic - a comparison between some random model from a random skin center advertisement I saw near my work place and my beloved Mine Yoshitaka from Yakuza 3 (Ryu ga Gotoku 3). That advertisement was posted on a pillar 2 meters away from an escalator I take everyday to get to work. My first reaction when I saw it for the first time as I came up the escalator was like ".........@_@!!!!!!!! ksjdfh8eryh23kjrn!?!??!" LOL. I had wanted to stand and stare at it a little but I'd be blocking the way of everyone else coming up the escalator + it'll be damn hell obvious what I'm doing which is embarrassing, so I had no choice but to walk away. I took the chance to take a pic of it, shamelessly, during lunch time though. Wahahhaaaaaa!! Miss you lots, Mine!!! <3333

Game rant: Dragon Age 2 Characters

I prepared this post on the 24th of April, but I never got around to finishing the write up until now. I had planned to write more, but I got really unmotivated and lazy... but I still wanna post it, so here it is... cept with less stuff. Sorry. =( Also, warning, there may be spoilers in the descriptions.

Bethany

Class: Mage
Weapon: Staff

Hawke's little sister. A sweet girl, I do like her, I was gonna make her one of my main team members, but she goes MIA for a long time in the story so I was forced to pick someone else.




Carver

Class: Warrior
Weapon: Two-handed sword / axe

Hawke's little brother and twin to Bethany. I don't really like him much, plus he starts off leaning towards "rivalry" with Hawke. But I challenged myself to turn their relationship from rivalry to friendship in my 2nd playthrough. I'm halfway towards full friendship so far. Man it's so not easy. LOL.

Aveline

Class: Warrior
Weapon: Shield and sword / axe

A very protective guardswoman with a strong sense of duty. She's alright but is not my favorite. Can't really handle female characters who are too uptight and unhumorous. However, there is this companion quest in Act II featuring Aveline that is absolutely entertaining - one of my favorite quests in all of Dragon Age 2.

Varric

Class: Rogue
Weapon: Crossbow (named Bianca)

A dwarf and member of the Merchants guild with a fantastic sense of humor/sarcasm. Everyone loves Varric. You'll love him too. He's that awesome. Period.

Anders

Class: Mage (Can be romanced)
Weapon: Staff

An apostate (a mage who does not belong in any circle) with a desire to help every apostate regain their right of freedom (including his). He also shares his body with a spirit called Justice, who takes control whenever he enters a dire situation or if he gets too emotional. He now regrets 'becoming one' with Justice, as the process cannot be undone. In my 1st playthrough, Anders is the only mage in my main team. A very nice guy, actually, and I agree with his views the most out of every DA2 character.

Fenris

Class: Warrior (Can be romanced)
Weapon: Two handed sword / axe

An elf and ex-slave on the run away from his ex-master, a magister (master mage). He has the unique ability to phase through things, hence killing people brutally, due to the powers of the lyrium (the tatoo-like markings) previously carved into his body. As a result from living his life as a slave, he is extremely against mages and magic, and is supportive of templars (who capture and keep mages in check). I think this should be obvious - he is the reason why I play this game. LOL. 'Nuff said.

Isabella

Class: Rogue (Can be romanced)
Weapon: Dual blades

An ex-pirate on the run away from a certain man seeking to kill her. Her favorite pastime/topic for life - sex. Period.

Merrill

Class: Mage (Can be romanced)
Weapon: Staff

A Dalish elf and ex-apprentice to the Keeper of their tribe. A little clumsy and naive, but kind and friendly nonetheless. Unlike every other mage in the group, however, Merrill is the only one who uses blood magic and believes that it is harmless, hence earning the disapproval from a lot of people (especially Anders and Fenris). Personally, I think she's pretty funny. Not that she means to be, but the questions she asks of the group and the answers she gives are often entertaining due to her naivety as well as interesting accent (in my opinion).

Sebastian

Class: Rogue (Can be romanced by female Hawke only)
Weapon: Bow & Arrow

The last surviving member of the Vael royal family, ex-prince of Starkhaven and a religious brother of the chantry. You can recruit him as permament party member in Act II provided you buy the "The Exiled Prince" DLC, which in my opinion is the next best thing after Fenris. XD Totally a favorite character despite the irony of his hypocrisy (if you really think about it) regardless of being a religious and supposedly holy person. He is nice and diplomatic towards everyone except Anders as Anders isn't afraid to hint that he's plotting something against the chantry/templars which Sebastian is highly protective of.

Game review: Dragon Age 2

Time to review the game I've been playing/obsessing over for almost a month now (PC version). I just finished my first playthrough of the game a few days ago and I'm currently on my second playthrough. Thought it's a good time to write this now before I lose the motivation to write it next time... as with Assassin's Creed II and Ryu ga Gotoku 4 (Yakuza 4) >_<!!

Graphics & Animation

Facial textures and details are very well done, but textures for everything else (clothes, environment, etc) are standard of a PC game, IMO. Facial expressions, lip animation and body gestures are superb - full of emotion and realism, which easily gets you attached to the characters, feel sympathetic for them, etc.

Design & Presentation

The positive:
Nice character design. Excellent dialogs and character interaction (be it random banter, story/quest dialog, etc)

The negative:
Level design is alright, but there is little variety and many dungeons are reused over and over (more than 5 times each!) even though they are supposed to be different places. They either make you backtrack or simply close off certain doors/paths to make it seem different, but it's still the same dungeon. =_=;

The neutral:
Due to the nature of the game, most (95%)  of the 'cutscenes' involve only stand-still conversations, hence there is no real action outside of gameplay... and certain cutscenes. The dialog is part of the game's main attraction, though, so perhaps it's either you like it or you don't.

Story

Disclaimer: I didn't play any previous Dragon Age games so I dunno how DA2 may link in with them. A few characters from DA1 have cameos here, though.

DA2's story is in fact very short and simple, but ironically it's not half as much about the main character, Hawke, than the society (Mages vs Templars) and people around him. The game starts off with Hawke (you can choose to be male or female, as well as design their faces, but for convenience sake I'll refer to Hawke as a he) escaping his hometown, which was attacked by darkspawn, with his family. They look for refuge at the city of Kirkwall where Hawke's mother used to live, only to find out that their estate had been lost. Hoping to make a fortune and regain the estate as well as reputation (they used to be nobles), Hawke joins an expedition to the dangerous Deep Roads. That's a gist of the introduction.

To be honest, though, I find that the actual story lies not with Hawke but with his companions whom he encounters along the way. It's the highly entertaining and interesting team dynamics and relationships as well as humor and drama that makes up the greatest part of the experience in this game. (Believe it or not, most of them hate one another XD!) Every companion has their own story and Hawke's own story depends on the decisions he makes with every companion and other plot-based characters, hence making everyone's experience a unique one.

However, I must say that after a certain point, Hawke's actions are no longer of his own motivation. Eventually he does what he does simply because he's a goody-two-shoes (or a busybody), or 'cause his companions/other NPCs requested so.

Gameplay

To start it off, you are free to choose between a class Warrior, Mage and Rogue for Hawke (male or female). The combat is easy to get into, but whether that's a good thing or not depends on the individual. In case it ever gets too difficult, the game allows you to switch the difficulty at any point in time, even in the midst of battle.

You can only bring a maximum of 4 people in your team, but no matter who you choose to bring along, everyone earns the same amount of experience and levels up at the same time, hence making it convenient for you to switch between anyone at any time. You can only control one character at a time so the other 3 in the team will run by A.I. (using a tactics system) but it is possible to you to switch between the characters in your team if you wish to control them manually.

The tactics system is much like Final Fantasy XII's gambit system, except it allows up to more than 20 settings and provides you with preset settings (customizable) that are surprisingly very useful and effective, especially convenient for beginners/casual players.

Typical of RPGs, every class has their own set of skills while every character also has a unique set of specialized skills. You can unlock/learn a new skill of your choice with every level-up, as well as increase your stats.

Though the battle system looks rather like an action game, it is still an RPG at its core. You can pause the game, turn the camera around to study the enemies' location or anticipate their next move, strategize and manually set your characters next move before you unpause and watch them take action. However, in most cases against normal enemies or small bosses, you can simply let the A.I. control your teammates while you mash "R" (for the PC) all the way to victory. ("R" is the shortcut for "melee-attack nearest enemy") It may sound... kinda lame/boring for the most part, but personally I'd rather it be 'lame' than have every normal battle feel like some super boss battle.

On normal difficulty the enemies are generally easy, but when the bosses actually get tough, the challenge is in keeping your team alive. Revive items are costly, and only selected characters are capable of resurrection. Also, I predict that most people don't even use these resurrection skills 'cause there are certain downsides to using them. I, for one, have never revived my characters when they were down. It made the battles tough but fun and challenging.

The one flaw I find with DA2's combat system is the fact that only mages are capable of true area-of-effect attacks. Warriors and rogues have certain attacks that are supposedly area-of-effect, but these attacks are weak in damage and efficiency as compared to the mage, which I think unbalances the classes and allows players very few crowd control options.

Lastly, this game is entirely quest-based (and set only around the city of Kirkwall), which also means it's not traditionally linear. Only main quests (plot-based) are compulsory, but (some) secondary quests allow you to recruit companions, companion quests allow you to further explore each companion's story, and side quests are random. The game is divided into three Acts, and every Act has its own sets of quests. Other than the final main quest of each Act, you are free to do the quests in any order.

Sound / Music / Voice acting

Incredibly brilliant voice acting, reminisce of Final Fantasy XII (English). [It's a coincidence the voice actor of Fenris, Gideon Emery, also voiced Balthier from FF12] All emotions and attitudes are perfectly and realistically portrayed, bringing everyone very much alive. Background music is nice (by Inon Zur, master of epic orchestral music), although the truly memorable ones that I remember in particular are few. (I find the main theme Lord of the Rings-ish)

Replay value

I'm not sure about unlockables but I don't think there's any other than achievements/titles. Even without them, however, you'll definitely replay it at least more than once just to check out the other scenarios, dialog options, romances, etc. Examples:

• Play as a female / male Hawke
  
  ---->> 
   
• Play as a warrior / mage / rogue
   
• Pick diplomatic / sarcastic / aggressive responses
  
  ---->>  
   
• Romance Fenris / Anders / Merill / Isabella / Sebastian
  (Clicking these links will lead you to video spoilers of their romance scenes. Don't worry, I picked the straight ones so no one gets traumatized. =P)
   
• Obtain friendship / rivalry with each companion
  (Friendship and rivalry determines your companions' general attitude towards you. It also affects the type of romance you may get; a friendship romance vs rivalry romance. Certain scenes/dialogs differ depending on the type of romance.)
  
  ---->>  
   
• Side with Templars / Mages
  (Who you side with determines the ending.)

* What freaking got me into DA2*

I'll be honest. My sole target of playing this game is for the romance – it's the first and only game I know of that officially allows gay romance!!!@#*&^@^%@#$#OMFGGGGG!!!!!!!
I feel the need to say this just so that you are aware that you are able to romance (optional) any of the five partners (2 girls, 3 guys) no matter if your Hawke is male or female. The only exception is Sebastian; he can only romance a female Hawke, but other than him, we are free to mix and match. Straight, lesbian, gay, whatever floats your boat. Bioware I fuckin' love you!!!! *Goes batshit insane*

Overall – A+++
The main story/plot is so-so, and the gameplay is not too bad. But, overall I still LOVE this game. The characters, their relationships, dialogs and romance possibilities are what hooks me so badly to this game, it's a DRUG!!! @_@ The experience I get is SOOO bloody satisfying I dunno how to put it into words!@#$%^&*!!! Simply put, it's my dream-game-come-true. Amen!!!!!!!!!!

Back in USA... (Part 2)

I really had planned to post this much sooner but somehow I just didn't manage to... >_<! I just bought Dragon Age 2 today (OMFG??!!) and I'm actually really itching to start it but I told myself I have to post this first before I can touch that game, and so here I am. ^^;

All photos in this entry were taken between 2002~2003 at ISCP (International Students Community Program, I think) events back when I was attending Lane Community College in Eugene. There were many more ISCP events than what's listed here, but unfortunately these are some of the only few photos I have. I didn't have a camera then and ISCP didn't exactly share the photos they took. Grrr....

ISCP - School potluck (2002)

This was, I think, my first potluck experience ever. It was held at the cafeteria in school at night and everyone had fun just hanging out and eating. I had made several friends by then so I didn't feel out of place or alone. I don't remember anything special happening during the potluck, but I do remember going for bowling and pool after that.

ISCP - Ski trip (2003)

I think I went for this "ski trip" cos I started working parttime for ISCP and employees were required to attend all their events. You might must be wondering why there's not a single photo of anyone ski'ing or snowboarding. Well, I was not the least bit interested in ski'ing or snowboarding. I wasn't even out there in the snow for more than an hour. I went there only cos' I had to, and since I was already there I told myself I should at least try one thing, which is something they called "tubing".

No pics were taken, sadly, but basically it involves sitting on a tire (or something like that) and sliding down a slope. Simple, fun and skill-less. Perfect =P I only paid for 3 tries, so once that was over I spent the rest of the day indoor... chatting with friends, playing cards... and a random Street Fighter III machine I found at a corner. LOL. I don't remember how much it cost a game, but I was inclined to give it a shot despite not knowing how to play the game simply becos I was overly deprived of arcade games in the US. LOL. I actually don't recall which character I chose, but I'm not surprised to find out from the above photos that it was none other than my baby Yun~ Once a fan, always a fan! \(^o^ )\ /( ^o^)/!!

PS: FYI, it may be a while before my next blog post... in case I get bloody addicted to Dragon Age 2 the moment I start it! >_<!!