Sunday, August 22, 2004

Now Playing #54

	Game: Final Fantasy Tactics Track: Trisection Time: 2:20 Size: 28.6 KB I acquired the Final Fantasy Tactics OST a while ago, and while I haven't (yet) played the game, I find its music to be excellent. There's a lot of good battle themes (though having never played the game, this could not be a battle theme, but it sure sounds like it), which I really like; the battle themes are usually some of my favorite tracks on other FF OSTs. And currently, Trisection is my favorite track on the FFT OST and I was able to find a midi version pretty close to the original, so up it goes. I think I'm going to start looking for a copy of FFT to buy. It would be nice if I could find a new copy ... but I kind of doubt that will happen. I'm just hoping I can find a used copy that isn't horribly scratched up. I figure waiting will probably only lower my chances of finding the game, and I've got some spare cash, so I might as well pick the game up now even if I'm currently getting plenty of entertainment out of SSBM. Same with Skies of Arcadia Legends, I guess; I was going to go pick up a copy of that a few weeks ago, but I just never got around to it after I started playing Animal Crossing, F-Zero GX, and SSBM again.

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Friday, August 20, 2004

It's alive! ... er, complete.

	I just updated the HTML FAQ again, and it's finally complete. Every subject is written, so unless people start asking me about stuff not covered in there and I write another section for it, this shall be its last update. I hope people find it helpful. Also, something unexpected even by me has gone up on It's All About the Rupees. Last night, completely out of the blue, I decided to write an editorial style article about the lack of 2D games on current home consoles. So that's up there in the Misc. Articles section, and I'll hopefully get around to writing more to go with it. I've decided I'm going to try and write at least one article of some kind each week during school, so if I stick to that, the Editorials page will probably grow a good amount.

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Thursday, August 19, 2004

Whee Indeed

	First off, I'd like to say happy birthday to Ginny. If I knew your address, I would seriously buy you a present and send it to you. ^_^ Next on the agenda is the HTML FAQ. I've finally gotten around to writing the section on image borders to go around posts, so for everyone that's asked me about how to do that, take a look. (And stop asking me about it, heh.) Also, that was the longest and most complex subject that I'm currently planning on covering in the FAQ, so there shouldn't be as long a wait before I write the next section. Since, you know, it won't take as long for me to kick myself into writing it, heh. And I guess that's about it. Nothing much else to talk about as of now, so I shall end this post. Yes, Whee indeed.

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Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Rupees and Gaming

	A rather large update has been put up on It's All About the Rupees. Those Zelda: A Link to the Past articles I'd been working on for about a month are finally complete and up on the site. I may also eventually get around to writing location, character, and enemy references, in addition to the item reference, though who knows when. Those would be more just straight game info and not so much for the purpose of telling you where things are and how to get them, though, so I don't see them as being as important as the item reference. In other news, I have to take a whiz. I think I'll do that now. ... Ah, sweet relief. (Don't you just love random crap like that? Well, okay, so you probably don't. But I do, so ha.) I spent Sunday night over at a friend's house and we stayed up till 4:00 AM playing GameCube games. First on the list was Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, and we finished up the last four areas of the game, so now I've played through the game completely a total of four times. Great fun, but now I need to play through again with a group of three or four people, heh. Next up was Soul Calibur II, which was brought over by a friend of my friend's little sister; we snagged it when they had to go to bed and got to play it. Now, neither of us had really had any decent experience with the game, but I came away from the game after about 40 versus matches with the feeling of, "Why is this game so popular?" Maybe it's just because I'm not much into fighting games, or maybe because we didn't know many special moves, but it just wasn't that fun. On some characters (especially Raphael), it seemed like all you had to do was button mash and you'd win just because your attacks are so much quicker that you can attack, and even if the attack is blocked, you can attack again before your opponent can. I think I only beat my friend once while he was playing on Raphael, and only by playing on Link (who I used a lot right at first to learn his attacks) and getting in a hit early, keeping him in a combo of sword slashes so that he just couldn't attack at all. But that was one win, while he won using Raphael probably about ten times. Another thing I was rather disappointed with was the movement. I mean, sure, moving towards and away from your opponent is fine, but circling around them seemed to be both rather slow (slower than forward/back movement) and pointless, as they just automatically turn to face you and can smack you with an attack before you can get around on their side and attack them. The only things I found it useful for was moving away from walls and edges, and occasionally being able to dodge around a slow attack or Link's projectiles. So overall, I'm not too impressed with the game so far. I'd definitely be willing spend some more time with it, but it hasn't made a good first impression on me. And as I told my brother just now when he said he was surprised that I hadn't bought the game already just because the GCN version has Link in it, I don't think I'd buy it unless I could find it really cheap somewhere for around $10. But like I've said, most fighting games don't really appeal to me, so eh. After getting bored with SCII, we decided to play SSBM for a while. I don't know if it was because another human was playing, or because I was in some sort of funk, or maybe just because I hadn't slept in about 36 hours at that point, but for some reason I wasn't playing that great. I was having a really hard time keeping up with my friend, who doesn't even own the game, even while playing on some of my best characters. It was really strange, though I think it was the sleep deprevation. It was as if nearly all sense of move comboing left me some time while I was sitting there for a few minutes in between playing SCII and SSBM. And finally, we played Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles the next morning. We're on year six now, after playing somewhere in between 16 and 17 hours I think. We seem to be near the end of the game, as we've done all but one of the dungeons that we can get to (the one on the other side of the ? element miasma stream, Vellenge Mountain or something like that). We don't know if that's the end dungeon or if there are more after it somewhere else that we haven't been before, but we do know that it kicked our butts. Some enemies in there were doing two full hearts of damage to us with their attacks and it was taking a dang lot of hits to kill each one. And at the point where we had to turn the game off and leave, something had happened to the chalice which made it so it was no longer protecting us from the miasma. Which meant we were constantly taking damage (meaning me having to constantly cast Cure), and we had no idea how to get it back to normal. And that was basically it. Multiplayer gaming has become a real treat for me, since I barely ever have anyone else around to play together with anymore, so it's always a lot of fun when I can get together with friends for gaming.

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Sunday, August 15, 2004

Now Playing #53

	This week's midi dedicated to GinnyLyn. Game: Chrono Trigger Track: To Far Away Times Time: 4:18 Size: 31.3 KB This is the first midi in a new year of Now Playing, so I thought I'd do something a bit special. I tried and tried to think of what song to use, and I was drawing a blank ... until I thought of this. GinnyLyn, though you may not know her, is a good friend of mine. She's probably as good as any friends I know in person, and her birthday is coming up on August 19, so I thought it would be perfect to use the Chrono Trigger song To Far Away Times. Not only does it relate to being the first of the next year's worth of midis in the sense that Now Playing is going "to far away times," but I also think of Ginny whenever I listen to this song. Mainly because of the little present I gave her for her birthday last year. ... But I meant what it said, and listening to this song helps remind me of it and all the great times I've had talking with her. And I hope it does the same for her.

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Friday, August 13, 2004

I'll smash them.

	Hmm, I guess I should update at least once in between the Now Playing posts. I've sort of been neglecting myOtaku, and it's showing in my popularity ranking, heh. Back up to #38 -- I guess I don't have enough of a following to keep getting page visits when I don't update ... but whatever. Playing SSBM is more fun than writing myOtaku posts anyway. And playing Super Smash Bros. Melee is what I've been doing instead of spending as much time on internet-related things. Talking about the game in the new SSBM thread on OtakuBoards got me wanting to play again, so I decided to use Marth a bunch and get as good with him as I am with Roy so I could compare the two better. And I think I've achieved that goal; I can now get just as high scores against three level 9 CPUs when using Marth as when I use Roy. And now I'm really wishing for some human competition. CPUs are good for getting good on a characters, but to get really good, there's no substitute for human opponents. Unfortunately, I know few people that own the game and would be able to put up a good fight against me, so who knows when I'll get to try out my awesome ninja skills -- er, my skill with Marth -- against another human of at least near equal skill level. Something I've noticed with Marth, though, is that it seems to take more skill to be as good with him, whereas with Roy you can use little besides smash attacks and still get okay scores against three level 9s. A lot more/longer combos can be done with Marth, but they require good timing and knowledge of which moves to use when. And also, when I'm standing in place and holding off constant attacks from all three CPU characters from the left, right, and above for about ten seconds without taking a hit, it just looks so dang awesome. Another thing I really like about Marth is that his parry/counter attack is so much better than Roy's. Not only is there a larger window for when he'll parry, but the counter also knocks the attacker back farther, allowing time for you to do an attack before they just smack you again while you're recovering from doing the counter attack. Because of that, I've actually been able to block three consecutive attacks while surrounded and come out of it without taking damage, as well as avoid being hit by attacks that would be otherwise unavoidable. Overall, I think I'm actually starting to prefer Marth over Roy, now that I've gotten good enough to really use Marth effectively. (Seems like every time I go back to SSBM I get at least a little better at it, just like with the original SSB.) But I still kick the most butt on Link, heh. For four player free-for-all, he is and will probably always be my best and favorite character.

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Sunday, August 8, 2004

Now Playing #52

	Anime: Chobits Track: Let Me Be with You Time: 1:28 Size: 54.5 KB If anyone remembers, I watched the anime Chobits a while ago and made a couple posts about it. Let Me Be with You is the opening theme, and so far, Chobits is the only anime where I've watched the opening for every episode. Though really, I wanted to get some midis of other songs from the series, but this was the only one I could find. But this one is good enough. Let Me Be with You, from Chobits (Japanese) (Let me be with you) Futari ga kitto deaeru you na mahou o kakete Ryoute o sotto kasanete hora hohoemu kara Hontou no kimochi kizukanai furi shite Totsuzen futari koi no ochitano (Let me be with you) (Let me be with you) (Let me be with you) Dakishimetai no ni... (Let me be with you) (Let me be with you) Let Me Be with You, from Chobits (English) (Let me be with you) Cast a spell, so that the two will meet for sure Place both hands together and you'll see them smile Pretending not to realize their true feelings The two fall in love (Let me be with you) (Let me be with you) (Let me be with you) I only want to hold you... (Let me be with you) (Let me be with you)

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Saturday, August 7, 2004

I'm not Mr. Thou!

	You'll get the title if you've played FFVI -- I'm listening to Cyan's theme right now, heh. So before anyone asks, no, I didn't actually try and do all that writing yesterday. It would've cool if I had, but no...I was never expecting to actually do all of it that I want to get done. That's just too much to do all at once, heh. I did, however, make good progress on the A Link to the Past articles, and I put what I have done so far on the local copy of It's All About the Rupees. If I add it to the site as I write it, I won't be faced with a ton of HTML/CSS formatting all at once when I finally do get everything written, but I won't actually be uploading anything until it's all finished. Or at least until everything I'm working on now is finished. There's some other A Link to the Past stuff that I'd like to write some time; stuff that I was originally planning for a Zelda site I was making long ago and never saw the light of day. I guess my goal is to get the A Link to the Past articles and the HTML FAQ finished before school starts, as well as write that ZFSA review and maybe some other misc. stuff. If I try I should definitely be able to make it, seeing as that leaves me about two weeks. After that I'll have to fit everything around my school schedule, which is always annoying.

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Friday, August 6, 2004

Stuff and . . . More Stuff

	Yeah, so I skipped a post in my semi-regular pattern of one every other day. Sometimes other things (and stuff) come before myOtaku posts. Deal with it. The main thing that's been taking up time that would've probably been otherwise spent on things such as myOtaku posts is my "involvement" with my brother and one his friend's latest project. They're trying to start up their own little web design business of sorts -- you give them money and they design you a web site -- and for that they need their own site, which they're in the process of making. I've been helping a bit, though mainly just watching and trying to learn something. My main contribution was the design for the little button tab things they're using as their main navigation links. So while I'm not the greatest at web graphics, it's nice to be able to contribute something. And maybe if I end up making some graphics for a site they design for a customer, I'll get a cut of the money. Probably wouldn't be much, but hey, anything would be nice. Next on the list is the HTML FAQ, which I finally sat down and worked on a few days ago and the result being a new section on post background images. Now, if I can only get through the next section, on post image borders, it'll all be down hill with easy stuff.... The trick is just finding a time where I'm motivated enough to write that next section, heh. Also being worked on once more are my Zelda: A Link to the Past articles. I got one more rewritten a couple days ago, and I'm hoping to get at least two more done this morning (current time: 6:06 AM) after I write this post. Morning means coffee, coffee means I'll be awake, and being awake means I'll actually enjoy writing them. Unfortunately, coffee also means somewhat frequent trips to the bathroom, but that's a side effect I'm willing to deal with. And the final thing would be an update for It's All About the Rupees. Not a big one, really, but I added two more banners, and I also changed a couple other little things that you won't actually notice when you view the site. I've come to the conclusion that I need to write more, though. The articles section seems a bit sparse compared to the graphics section, and I'd really like it to be the other way around. And that, actually, is one reason I'm rewriting my ZLTTP articles; I want more good written content for the site, as well as just more exerpience in writing that sort of thing. Also, I've been trying to come up with some good ideas for things that could go on the Misc. Articles page, such as editorial style articles and whatnot. Right now all I have up there is my Four Swords of Link article, which seems more like a place holder for that page than anything else, since the article has since become somewhat outdated with the release of Four Swords Adventures. I really should get around to doing a new article to include all the little tweaks I've made to my original concepts since writing the article. Heck, maybe I'll just spend the entire day trying to catch up with all the writing I've been meaning/wanting to do, heh. It would certainly help me to stay awake all day, having gotten up at about 4:30 PM yesterday and stayed up all night.... But we'll see if I actually manage it. That's a fair bit of writing.

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Monday, August 2, 2004

Addicted to Bells

	Around 800,000 Bells changed hands twice today in Animal Crossing. First from Nook to Medli as a result of the selling of every single piece of fruit in my town -- that's a lotta nuts! ... er, fruit -- as well as the selling of countless fish and insects. Then a second time, though not all at once, as I paid off my second floor house expansion. In the end, I'll be getting a nice, shiny statue of Medli put up next to the one of Desbreko in front of the train station, and Nook got a ton of fruit and crap; not much actually changed with the money. But still, that's a dang lot of Bells to get in a single day, even if I did spend them all as soon as I got them. Also, I've caught just about every fish and insect I can get in August already (there's not much change in this area between July and August), so from now on I'll be spending most of my time trying to find actual furniture for Medli's house. I've decided to use the Cabana series for her second floor, so I'll be trying to collect at least one of each piece of Cabana furniture, and I also need to find tables to put a bunch of the fish/insect containers on. That's the really great thing about Animal Crossing, though; if you want to keep playing the game for however long, there's always something you can do. And if you care to dump more money into it after the initial purchase, you can also get an e-Reader and e-cards to use with the game, heh. Though I'm not about to do that, even if I could borrow my friend's e-Reader, just the sheer size of the game by itself is amazing when you think about it. Heck, there's even full NES games within the game, which can eat up hours by themselves. I've not forgotten about getting Skies of Arcadia Legends, however, I've just decided to wait a while. With two family birthdays at the end of July I wanted to make sure I would have enough money for presents. And then there's also the release of the Nintendo DS, sneaking up ever closer. As of now I'm not planning on getting one at launch, but I am saving up money to get one eventually. Maybe if I wait long enough I won't get screwed on the colors like I was with the GBA SP.

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