(Stolen off Jun Yi)
Step 1: Get your music thinger ready, put it on random, and play.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 20 songs that play.
Step 3: Let everyone guess what song the lines come from
Step 4: Cross out the songs when someone guesses correctly, or let people know who got it.
BUT
Since I am an absolute jerk I shall add none of the English songs. >_> Because of that I post the 1st 2 lines >_>
1) Kokoro ni, chiisana, hana ga, saiteru,
2) Nokosareta tooi mukashi no
Kizuato ga uzukidashite mata (I guess if anyone JY will guess this >_>)
3) Yamikumo ni osore hiza wo daku
Chigau desho? soko wa warau tokoro
4) Anna ni issho datta no ni
Yuugure wa mou chigau iro (This is so easy that it's sad >_>)
5) Nagusame nagara fukinshin dakedo
Naiteru kao mo kirei de aseru yo
6) Hoshikuzu no sabaku ni okizarareta
Suisou to boku-tachi hiza wo kakaete
7) Tadoritsuku basho sae mo
Wakaranai todoku wo shinjite (Any typoes I hope not I typed this one out >_>)
8) (Hey happy face >_>) Just keep on trying, keep on flying
I will be the light (By right this is untelligible. >_>)
9) Arere? okashiina kono dokidoki ha
kimi no ude no nakade afuredasu (I will be sad if no one is l33t enough to get this >_>)
10) Lu La lu La piano wa sekai no yumesaku nohara ni melody
Kowareta tokei wo shinjite jikan wa dare no mikata?
11) Angely i demony kruzhili nado mnoj
Rassekali ternii i mlechnye puti
12) Don't worry, do your best!
Picnic Kibun feel so good! (Please someone guess this >_>)
13) Shizukana kono yoru ni anata wo matteru no
ano toki wasureta hohoemi wo tori ni kite
14) I never really feel quite right
I don't know why, all I know is there's something wrong
15) I wanna go to a place where I can say
That I'm all right and I'm staying there with you
16) Sayonara wa itsumo kyuuni
soyokaze no youni yattekuru
17) Whoa-oh! Oh Angel! Come greet the dawn, it's a brand new day!
Whoa-oh! Oh Angel! Let burn the passion that fires your soul!!
18) LALALA HOP! SOSHITE STEP!
KITA HE JUMP! AND JUMP! AND JUMP JUMP WHOO! (Imagine my amusement >_>)
19) Hashiri dasu shunkan sakamichi de kaze ni
yakitsuketa hizashi ga mune no oku atsuku shita
20) Yasashii sono yubi ga owari ni fureru toki
Ima dake, kimi dake shinjite mo ii darou
Damnit, I have WAY too much G-SEED on that list. >_> I bet it's over a quarter or something. And the amount of songs with English inside that showed up was quite interesting >_>
Guess on teh comments plz >_>
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Thursday, December 29, 2005
In Anticipation of 2006
The year is indeed ending, and this time none of us hath murdered it. In fact, given a choice, chances are alot of us would wish to relive it again. Bah, sucks to you, let's move on in life.
Sometimes we reach a phase of our life, and only realize it after we're someway through it. What was the start of all this? When did the cogs of fate begin to turn? Perhaps it is impossible to answer that now (Damn, it just sounds so corny now. >_>) All that we can do now, is look back, reminisce, and angst like the absolute losers we are.
Ok, ignore that. And don't listen to Linkin Park, nor Simple Plan >_> Why?
Bunny: ^_^
LINKIN PARK AND SIMPLE PLAN ATTACKS
Bunny: ;_;
I kind of refused to use Happy Bunny pictures because they didn't get the point across well enough. >_>
But seriously, this year's done with. Stop feeling angsty that 2k5's ending and start feeling angsty that 2k6's starting. >_>
Up till now, I'm confused whether I made the right choice of Geog over History. Overall I prefer History, but I'm alot worse at it than Geog (I barely passed Hist each time, compared to my A1 in Geog). Admittedly given a choice between just people I'm going to choose 3.10. >_> But oh well, it's still 2.12 for HCL. Lookie I'm being a hypocrite >_>
Next year I'm going to have to be far more responsible than I was this year (Just vice chair). Next year, I'm class chair, I'm 2nd IC for my SJAB Section, I'm Finance Manager for Church Choir, my bro's not going around to help me with science and math, AND I'm going into Sec 3 and have to do ISO alone (Damn you Kev >_>)
I haven't thought through any good ISO Topics (The one I thought of is abit teh difficult =\) but then again neither have you so hah. >_>
With all this responsibilities stacked onto my shoulder, how is a poor widdle kiddie like moi supposed to survive in life?
Easy, I don't. o_O
Oh well.
"Que Sera Sera,
Whatever will be will be,
The future's not ours to see,
Que Sera Sera."
Perhaps this is absolute pessimism, but I'm not really looking forward to next year. >_>
Whee, the metamorphosis. >_> Owaranai no ashita he.
Sometimes we reach a phase of our life, and only realize it after we're someway through it. What was the start of all this? When did the cogs of fate begin to turn? Perhaps it is impossible to answer that now (Damn, it just sounds so corny now. >_>) All that we can do now, is look back, reminisce, and angst like the absolute losers we are.
Ok, ignore that. And don't listen to Linkin Park, nor Simple Plan >_> Why?
Bunny: ^_^
LINKIN PARK AND SIMPLE PLAN ATTACKS
Bunny: ;_;
I kind of refused to use Happy Bunny pictures because they didn't get the point across well enough. >_>
But seriously, this year's done with. Stop feeling angsty that 2k5's ending and start feeling angsty that 2k6's starting. >_>
Up till now, I'm confused whether I made the right choice of Geog over History. Overall I prefer History, but I'm alot worse at it than Geog (I barely passed Hist each time, compared to my A1 in Geog). Admittedly given a choice between just people I'm going to choose 3.10. >_> But oh well, it's still 2.12 for HCL. Lookie I'm being a hypocrite >_>
Next year I'm going to have to be far more responsible than I was this year (Just vice chair). Next year, I'm class chair, I'm 2nd IC for my SJAB Section, I'm Finance Manager for Church Choir, my bro's not going around to help me with science and math, AND I'm going into Sec 3 and have to do ISO alone (Damn you Kev >_>)
I haven't thought through any good ISO Topics (The one I thought of is abit teh difficult =\) but then again neither have you so hah. >_>
With all this responsibilities stacked onto my shoulder, how is a poor widdle kiddie like moi supposed to survive in life?
Easy, I don't. o_O
Oh well.
"Que Sera Sera,
Whatever will be will be,
The future's not ours to see,
Que Sera Sera."
Perhaps this is absolute pessimism, but I'm not really looking forward to next year. >_>
Whee, the metamorphosis. >_> Owaranai no ashita he.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
DDR
Don't blame me for teh post: Blame http://jkpi2.blogspot.com/2005/12/ddr.html >_>
I've been playing alot of -what else- Stepmania because I -why else- have no social life whatsoever. =) I'm starting to find it easier and easier because -duh- I've been practising. Whee~ =) I usually play a few of my favourites, and maybe an odd song here and there. Sometimes I play the occasional song with mods for fun, isn't that fun =) I didn't play that much today -oh, who am I kidding >_>- but still managed to do some fun stuff.
Picked: Tsugaru Heavy, 3x, Expand, Split, Blind, Mirror
I managed to get a C on this despite the fact that Split is an absolute pain in the butt and Expand is just painful when coupled with a 495 bpm, ouchies, no? I managed to play with 4 mods at once (Speed mods are almost always played, so they don't count) and passed, whee~! ^_^
Picked: So Deep Heavy, 3.5x, Dizzy, Reverse, Dark, Shuffle
I managed to get an A on this one despite it being a 9-footer coupled with mods! Go me! Lookie, I got a 155 combo! =) In my opinion this is one of the hardest 9-footers but I got an A on it!~ ^^ Aw, but I got so many greats this round I feel so sad =( Oh well I just have to try harder next time!!!
Picked: D2R Heavy, 3x, Boost, Hidden, Dark, Mirror
In my opinion this is one of the easiest 7-footers. I cleared it with 2 non-combo steps and a decent AA, not short of a record because it's the 1st time I played the song. >_> (Quite a stack of Marvellouses this time) Boost is such a pain when coupled with higher mods than 3x (I had to retry 2 times because Boost screws you up on 4x and 3.5x for D2R =\)
Picked: Daisuke, C600, Hidden, Dark, Twister
Lookie, 449 OKs =) (An OK = you held a freeze step till the end. Wth to the twister mod, 450+ freezes instead of the original 23 o_O)
Lookie I'm training my arrow reading skills! I'm reading at 600bpm -no, that's not 60, that's 10 times that =) it's not 360 either, it's 1 2/3x that =)- how great I must be~ I am absolutely happy with myself. ^_^
Picked: Shining Collection by Kilgamayan, 3.5x
No mods this time, I have to be serious =) JK got a stack of Marvellouses for 1998 Standard, as he said. I got a stack of Marvellouses for my songs too, like this one! One thousand -no, not words (*harhar X-2 pun >_>*)- marvellouses all at one go! How happy I am. =) I am definitely happy with my 1164 Marvellouses and 600 Perfects. I'm quite sad though, I only get a 227 combo =( Oh well, an A on a keyboard-only song is something to be happy about =)
Picked: P8107 by Skorpion9x, C600
Lookie, lookie! Less than 20 combo breakers! Isn't that, like, so, cool? Isn't that, like, so, awesome, and, stuff? Shouldn't I, like, stop, using, commas, so, much, and, disgrace, the, English, language? >_> Fine I will.
And not just that, lookie! I got 90 million points on that song! (Max is 100 mil) Didn't I do absolutely wonderfully? I am so proud of myself. I should give myself a pat on the back and a chocolate chip cookie. =)
Oh, no, look again! I've got a seven hundred and thirty nine combo! Isn't that just wonderful? Look, it's the biggest one yet! =) I should get another cookie for this =)
--------------------------------------------------------------
All scores were taken by Stepmania. In other words those scores were done by fingers, not feet. >_> Still, the P8107 and Shining Collection scores were damn awesome IMO, since both were the best. I've gotten 90mils on P8107 and 1k Marvs on S. Collection, but these are my highest scores. >_>
And yes, my social life is THAT lacking. >_>
I've been playing alot of -what else- Stepmania because I -why else- have no social life whatsoever. =) I'm starting to find it easier and easier because -duh- I've been practising. Whee~ =) I usually play a few of my favourites, and maybe an odd song here and there. Sometimes I play the occasional song with mods for fun, isn't that fun =) I didn't play that much today -oh, who am I kidding >_>- but still managed to do some fun stuff.
Picked: Tsugaru Heavy, 3x, Expand, Split, Blind, Mirror
I managed to get a C on this despite the fact that Split is an absolute pain in the butt and Expand is just painful when coupled with a 495 bpm, ouchies, no? I managed to play with 4 mods at once (Speed mods are almost always played, so they don't count) and passed, whee~! ^_^
Picked: So Deep Heavy, 3.5x, Dizzy, Reverse, Dark, Shuffle
I managed to get an A on this one despite it being a 9-footer coupled with mods! Go me! Lookie, I got a 155 combo! =) In my opinion this is one of the hardest 9-footers but I got an A on it!~ ^^ Aw, but I got so many greats this round I feel so sad =( Oh well I just have to try harder next time!!!
Picked: D2R Heavy, 3x, Boost, Hidden, Dark, Mirror
In my opinion this is one of the easiest 7-footers. I cleared it with 2 non-combo steps and a decent AA, not short of a record because it's the 1st time I played the song. >_> (Quite a stack of Marvellouses this time) Boost is such a pain when coupled with higher mods than 3x (I had to retry 2 times because Boost screws you up on 4x and 3.5x for D2R =\)
Picked: Daisuke, C600, Hidden, Dark, Twister
Lookie, 449 OKs =) (An OK = you held a freeze step till the end. Wth to the twister mod, 450+ freezes instead of the original 23 o_O)
Lookie I'm training my arrow reading skills! I'm reading at 600bpm -no, that's not 60, that's 10 times that =) it's not 360 either, it's 1 2/3x that =)- how great I must be~ I am absolutely happy with myself. ^_^
Picked: Shining Collection by Kilgamayan, 3.5x
No mods this time, I have to be serious =) JK got a stack of Marvellouses for 1998 Standard, as he said. I got a stack of Marvellouses for my songs too, like this one! One thousand -no, not words (*harhar X-2 pun >_>*)- marvellouses all at one go! How happy I am. =) I am definitely happy with my 1164 Marvellouses and 600 Perfects. I'm quite sad though, I only get a 227 combo =( Oh well, an A on a keyboard-only song is something to be happy about =)
Picked: P8107 by Skorpion9x, C600
Lookie, lookie! Less than 20 combo breakers! Isn't that, like, so, cool? Isn't that, like, so, awesome, and, stuff? Shouldn't I, like, stop, using, commas, so, much, and, disgrace, the, English, language? >_> Fine I will.
And not just that, lookie! I got 90 million points on that song! (Max is 100 mil) Didn't I do absolutely wonderfully? I am so proud of myself. I should give myself a pat on the back and a chocolate chip cookie. =)
Oh, no, look again! I've got a seven hundred and thirty nine combo! Isn't that just wonderful? Look, it's the biggest one yet! =) I should get another cookie for this =)
--------------------------------------------------------------
All scores were taken by Stepmania. In other words those scores were done by fingers, not feet. >_> Still, the P8107 and Shining Collection scores were damn awesome IMO, since both were the best. I've gotten 90mils on P8107 and 1k Marvs on S. Collection, but these are my highest scores. >_>
And yes, my social life is THAT lacking. >_>
Monday, December 26, 2005
How to succeed
From my sister (Hey, she's working, and if this works for her it should for you. Formulas for success are always abound)
This is strictly a mathematical viewpoint...it goes like this:
What Makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%. How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?
Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:
If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.
Then:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%
and
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%
But,
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%
And,
B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%
AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.
A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 127%
So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that While Hard work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, it's the Bullshit and Ass kissing that will put you over the top.
(Edit: And now we know how Joshua can do so well for Hist and Lit >_>)
This is strictly a mathematical viewpoint...it goes like this:
What Makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%. How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?
Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:
If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.
Then:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%
and
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%
But,
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%
And,
B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%
AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.
A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 127%
So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that While Hard work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, it's the Bullshit and Ass kissing that will put you over the top.
(Edit: And now we know how Joshua can do so well for Hist and Lit >_>)
Friday, December 23, 2005
Christmas
From all that dwell below the skies,
Let the Creator’s praise arise;
Let the Redeemer’s Name be sung,
Through every land, by every tongue.
Eternal are Thy mercies, Lord;
Eternal truth attends Thy Word.
Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore,
Till suns rise and set no more.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallellujah.
Your lofty themes, ye mortals, bring,
In songs of praise divinely sing;
The great salvation loud proclaim,
And shout for joy the Savior’s Name.
In every land begin the song;
To every land the strains belong;
In cheerful sounds all voices raise,
And fill the world with loudest praise.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallellujah.
----------------------------------------------------------
Merry Christmas everyone; may everyone enjoy theirs. Mine with my brother, you with your kin, each with their friends.
It's been fast, isn't it. Soon I have to lead 3.9, heh. I would've loved a Christmas party; but I guess we won't have one before it, huh. Would love to sing for someone apart from the church choir. Oh well.
Memories are but memories, and I personally am grateful for setting up this blog. Now I know undoubtedbly that I have grown, and so has my blog. And I know that I will change, for better or for worse. What's left is to remember this me, this you, this everyone, and as hard as it may be, to embrace the next me, the next you, the next everyone. And when the final 'us' comes, the mark is but silent drops of water.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien has ended with a rather depressing ending =
Hellsing hath taken the 11.00 spot and Juuni Kokki hath taken the 11.30 spot. Words fail to describe my sadness of rerun animes. ;_;
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Animes watched this year: (Favourite characters are in brackets)
Hellsing (Walter =)
Juuni Kokki (Eh, none in particular)
Last Exile (Too many =)
Gundam SEED Destiny (EH >_> Kira)
Shaman King (Lyzerg =)
Inuyasha 2nd Season (Meh >_>)
Godannar (Milla/Lou)
Kita He ~Diamond Dust Drops~ (SUOMI! <3 >_>)
Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien (Akane =)
Chrno Crusade (Azmaria =)
Chobits (Kotoko =)
Scrapped Princes (Shannon =)
Peacemaker Kurogane (Suzu/Susumu)
Total: 13 Animes. Whoa, that's alot o_O
Games completed/achieved something in (Gwin's games count as well >_>):
Katamari Damacy
We Love Katamari
Seiken Densetsu 3 (No items)
DDR (Hey I have to say it sometime. Can pass Heavy songs now)
Stepmania (Quasar 1.5x B YES MUAHAHA watch out Reality you're up next year MUAHAHA)
GGXX#R (Eh my Ky considered somewhat good already ok >_> SHUT UP SZ >_>)
Xenosaga Ep. II: Jenseits Von Gut Und Bose <3
KH: Chain of Memories
Riviera: The Promised Land
Fire Emblem 7
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Total games: 11
Total RPGs: 6 (How depressing =\)
Games I tried but didn't complete:
Phantom Brave (Too much levelling needed >_>)
Earthbound (Too brainless >_>)
Fire Emblem 4 (Uhh just wasn't too interested)
Overall: Pretty damn good in regards to the amount of anime I've watched this year. I haven't played many RPGs this year though, but that's offset by the huge amount of anime. Social Failureism +1,
Herrick is now a Lv 21 Social Failure! *kyue FF Victoly muzickz*
------------------------------------------------
I've said it last year, I've said it again, and add something. Owaranai Ashita He, Kiou He Kairanai Kara.
Senpi wo shiteita, tsumi mo suru. Demo, ima wa watashitachi no takaramono. Dakara, oboeru, soshite iku.
Minna, tanoshii yume datta, da ne? Owaranai yume... da ne?
----------------------------------------------------------
Damnit, sometimes I wish that my selfishness would actually come true. I just really don't want to change. *sigh*
Let the Creator’s praise arise;
Let the Redeemer’s Name be sung,
Through every land, by every tongue.
Eternal are Thy mercies, Lord;
Eternal truth attends Thy Word.
Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore,
Till suns rise and set no more.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallellujah.
Your lofty themes, ye mortals, bring,
In songs of praise divinely sing;
The great salvation loud proclaim,
And shout for joy the Savior’s Name.
In every land begin the song;
To every land the strains belong;
In cheerful sounds all voices raise,
And fill the world with loudest praise.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallellujah.
----------------------------------------------------------
Merry Christmas everyone; may everyone enjoy theirs. Mine with my brother, you with your kin, each with their friends.
It's been fast, isn't it. Soon I have to lead 3.9, heh. I would've loved a Christmas party; but I guess we won't have one before it, huh. Would love to sing for someone apart from the church choir. Oh well.
Memories are but memories, and I personally am grateful for setting up this blog. Now I know undoubtedbly that I have grown, and so has my blog. And I know that I will change, for better or for worse. What's left is to remember this me, this you, this everyone, and as hard as it may be, to embrace the next me, the next you, the next everyone. And when the final 'us' comes, the mark is but silent drops of water.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien has ended with a rather depressing ending =
Hellsing hath taken the 11.00 spot and Juuni Kokki hath taken the 11.30 spot. Words fail to describe my sadness of rerun animes. ;_;
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Animes watched this year: (Favourite characters are in brackets)
Hellsing (Walter =)
Juuni Kokki (Eh, none in particular)
Last Exile (Too many =)
Gundam SEED Destiny (EH >_> Kira)
Shaman King (Lyzerg =)
Inuyasha 2nd Season (Meh >_>)
Godannar (Milla/Lou)
Kita He ~Diamond Dust Drops~ (SUOMI! <3 >_>)
Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien (Akane =)
Chrno Crusade (Azmaria =)
Chobits (Kotoko =)
Scrapped Princes (Shannon =)
Peacemaker Kurogane (Suzu/Susumu)
Total: 13 Animes. Whoa, that's alot o_O
Games completed/achieved something in (Gwin's games count as well >_>):
Katamari Damacy
We Love Katamari
Seiken Densetsu 3 (No items)
DDR (Hey I have to say it sometime. Can pass Heavy songs now)
Stepmania (Quasar 1.5x B YES MUAHAHA watch out Reality you're up next year MUAHAHA)
GGXX#R (Eh my Ky considered somewhat good already ok >_> SHUT UP SZ >_>)
Xenosaga Ep. II: Jenseits Von Gut Und Bose <3
KH: Chain of Memories
Riviera: The Promised Land
Fire Emblem 7
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Total games: 11
Total RPGs: 6 (How depressing =\)
Games I tried but didn't complete:
Phantom Brave (Too much levelling needed >_>)
Earthbound (Too brainless >_>)
Fire Emblem 4 (Uhh just wasn't too interested)
Overall: Pretty damn good in regards to the amount of anime I've watched this year. I haven't played many RPGs this year though, but that's offset by the huge amount of anime. Social Failureism +1,
Herrick is now a Lv 21 Social Failure! *kyue FF Victoly muzickz*
------------------------------------------------
I've said it last year, I've said it again, and add something. Owaranai Ashita He, Kiou He Kairanai Kara.
Senpi wo shiteita, tsumi mo suru. Demo, ima wa watashitachi no takaramono. Dakara, oboeru, soshite iku.
Minna, tanoshii yume datta, da ne? Owaranai yume... da ne?
----------------------------------------------------------
Damnit, sometimes I wish that my selfishness would actually come true. I just really don't want to change. *sigh*
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Game Comparisons
Beware: This blogpost is on NOTHING BUT GAMES and is FRICKING LONG. This is not for the faint of heart (Actually it's for the faint of heart in regards to games so >_>) Oh well, it's just a wall of text to those who don't get it.
I have come to a realization that there are still many rather uninformed RPG gamers of what games are good and what aren't. For example we have Kevin Wong over here who decided to borrow FFXII instead of DQVIII (Which for non-gamers is pretty much paramount to 1. Bad taste in games 2. Lack of knowledge in regards to good games 3. FF Fanboyism 4. An unforgivable sin.)
I hath taken it upon myself to tell the readers of my blog of the games out there less appreciated by AHEM certain people, played but never completed by AHEM certain people, stopped playing due to an incapability to deliver curry like AHEM some people, or just an incapability of finding such a rare game (I had to borrow a number of games from Cleon just because he went to Johor quite often and had good taste in games too)
Firstly I must begin by saying why FF is mediocre.
Fanboy/Myth No.1: ZOMG FF HAS TEH GUD GARPHICZ LOLOL!!!!shiftoneoneone11!!
FF indeed has good graphics, but to buy a game due to good graphics is very superficial and Sidhant-like. >_> Also, graphics are far from making a game good (Disgaea owns the FF series easily. Heck, Chrono Trigger and a number of other SNES games own the FF series easily). Rather, they are eye candy so you can see that pwetty tree and pwetty FMV sequence involving being underwater and unable to breathe for 10 minutes all while kissing another person. No, graphics aren't going to save FF from mediocrity.
Fanboy/Myth No.2: EH THE CHARACTERS ROCK OK THEY HAVE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
No they aren't developed one bit. For each game of FF there are as many bad characters as good characters (This is PS only, since FF6 had way more awesome characters). To be exact, the characters get worse and worse as the games go on.
FF7: I didn't play, the characters were somewhat decent I believe except for ALL UR MATERIA R BELONGZORZ TO YUFFI MUAHAHA
FF8: LAWL TRAINS TRAINS TRAINS/ LAWL I LIKE A GIRL WHO LIKES TRAINS TRAINS TRAINS/ Angstangstangst (Admittedly, Squall is far better a character than Cloud)/ Rinoa who was decent but then she started liking Squall. >_> What character do we have that is awesome? Laguna. Anyone else? Arguably Squall. Anyone else? Uhh Zell/Quistis? Hmm
FF9: Save Vivi, Zidane, and Kuja most other characters were rather mediocre and not very original. That said Vivi is ownage, so I guess it makes up for it.
FF10: Auron Rikku Lulu vs Wakka Tidus Yuna Kimahri. Close, but the bad characters still triumph over the good ones
FFX2 is not a game so I'm not including it. But if I have to, the only character close to good was Paine. X2 Yuna contrary to SZ belief reeks of phail.
Fanboy/Myth No.3: FF has en amayzeeng storlylaine ohkay
While I would admit that originally FF did bear amazing storylines (4,5,6,7 and arguably 8 are testament to that), it gets worse. And worse. And worse. I have no idea what FFXII's storyline will be like but I'm not having high expectations to it.
FF6: LOOKIE I PUSH A STATUE AND WORLD GOES KABLEWIE
*World goes kablewie*
FF7: My main issue is with Shinra just disappearing after Disc 1, but apart from that I can't say much about FF7. Like I said, I didn't play it.
FF8: HAY GUYZ WE ALL CAME FRUM TEH SAYM ORPHANAGE LAWLZ
O RLY I CUN REMEMBAH
YA RLY I REMEMBAH BUT I DIDN'T SAY TIL DISC TOO COZ I DIDN'T FEEL LIKE IT LAWL
FF9: I can't remember much bad about this one, but they wasted alot of character potential with it. Oh well, was more of a tribute to old gamers anyway.
FFX: "I AM UR FATHER" "NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU" "I'M GONNA DIE" "NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU" "I'M NOT HUMAN" "NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU"
FFX2 doesn't have a storyline so I shan't get to that.
I don't remember any people saying that FF had good replayability so I need not talk about that.
Now given all that, I must add that it's not wrong to like a mediocre series; it's wrong to have a mediocre series and say that it's perfect while dissing other gems.
And yes I like FF as well I just don't see it in a fanboyish way like SZ and KW do.
All that said, let me get down to my rating of FF:
Story: 6/10 Decent stories ruined by bad segments. FFVI and FFVII should deserve a 9/10 though, and FFX2 a 1/10.
Graphics: 10/10 graphics are something FF is known for, usually superior to most other games. To say that FF's graphics stink is, to say the least, quite far from the truth (As far as RPGs on PS2 go anyway. Xbox has better graphics but less good games, nonetheless Jade Empire's graphics are amazing)
Character: 7/10 There's usually a really good character per game, a number decent characters and an equivalent amount of bad characters, but there's almost never a character that you would hate to the core unless intended.
Gameplay: Meh I can't judge this one FF's gameplay changes way too often.
Replayability: 3/10 Hardly any post-game things to do, if any at all. A secret boss or two at best, not much of post-game dungeons. FF4A has replayability, but that was like at best released less than a month ago. Prior to that? Nope.
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Now to start on other series:
Mana series (Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3, Legend of Mana, Sword of Mana, *Children of Mana*, *World of Mana*)
Note: *'d games mean they're not out yet.
The Mana series was an additional side FF-gaiden-esque game when the first Seiken Densetsu came out. After that, Square decided to split it into a new series of its own, the Mana series. Probably a few people here have played it (Mel, SZ, Jarrel *Who doesn't read this blog*, Me) and appreciate its value. A very original series, it's hard not to like its novelty unless you're KW.
Story: SD3 and LoM do not bear a single linear storyline but rather, you decide how it turns out (SD3 by choosing your party, LoM by the missions you select and your map layout) whereas both SoMs have a single storyline. N/A
Grapihcs: It caters less towards a realistic view that FF bears and more towards a fantasy-like feel. Just look at all of the Mana games up till now, and World of Mana. It's a style you either hate or love. Either way, the graphics are by no means bad given timeline (So don't tell me SoM and SD3 graphics stink). 7/10.
Characters: While I cannot vouch for Sword of Mana, Secret of Mana and Legend of Mana's main characters are for the most of it, silent. This gives you the ability to actually 'personalize' your characters. This works for some, this doesn't work for others. Personally I'm fine with it. 'sides, the silent character's what Link's all about. For SD3, the characters weren't particularly deep, but their character persoanlities were solid enough given that point of time. While I will admit that Duran and Angela aren't what one would call original, Riesz and Hawk are where it's it. =) N/A as well overall for the series
Gameplay: Characters walk around and battle on the same screen with all the enemies on it, unlike FF where battles start in an independent screen. Kingdom Hearts is the most similar one to the Mana series' method of fighting, just in 3D instead. This method of playing IMO is more engaging than FF's method of fighting and more action-based. Though it does kind of end up into a slash-slash-slash-POWERATTACK game, but hey, better than KH's 1-hit KO at high levels right. Admittedly this kind of fighting will get boring, but nonetheless it's still quite more fun than FF's fighting methods. Yet another for-or-against thing. 8/10.
Replayability: SoM1 had no replayability, and I don't know about Sword of Mana's replayability. For SD3 and Legend of Mana, though, the fact that the storyline wasn't linear meant that you could enjoy the game all over again with changes. Cleared SD3 once? You only played 3 of the 6 characters, and 1 of the 3 storylines, and 3 of the 24 final classes. Go do it again you. LoM's new game plus lets you keep whatever you had from the previous game so you can play Nightmare mode without uber death, and still enjoy playing with different side characters and different story quests. 8/10.
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Ok, that's one down. What's up next? Suikoden!
Suikoden series: (Suiko I, II, III, IV, Tactics, *V*)
Suikoden's Namco's go at making a story based upon - what's that - Suikoden. You don't get it, I assume. Suikoden's kanji is Sui2 Hu3 Zhuan4. There, now you get it. The series unlike FF and the Mana series is all based in one single world. A story based highly on the theme of war, it requires more than overlevelling to save the day; you need -ZOMG- brains and strategy.
Definitely, Cleon is a better critique of the series than I am, since he's played all 4 Suikos and is currently playing Tactics. In comparison I've only played II and III, and haven't actually completed either (I got to the last scene in both but didn't beat the boss for various reasons >_>), but well Cleon ain't the blogger so here I am.
Graphics: It has gotten progressively better. However, that doesn't change the fact that Suiko 1 and 3's graphics were considerably bad, whereas 2 and 4 are decent. 6/10 overall.
Story: Good. The story development is very solid, and the fact that all games take place in the same world make the overall story stronger. However, from what I see the story is progressively getting worse. Suiko 2 was a definite gem, but I can't say that about 3 and 4 didn't seem too good according to Cleon. I hope Suiko V changes that. 9/10 for Suiko II, 7/10 for the rest.
Characters: You have a hundred and eight of them each game. 'nuff said. Character development is usually only strong for the main characters though, and little to no effort is made towards further developing any other characters save those closely associated with the main characters. That said, each character has their backstory and personality, which is pretty good IMO considering there's 108 of them. 7/10.
Gameplay: Oh, where do I get started. There are 3 forms of battles: Duels, Battles between two parties (IOW a typical fight), and wars. The differences you can kinda tell easily. Duels and wars are rare, but wars are an important part of the story, and a difficult one too. They require much thought (Suiko 2 at least, Suiko 3 needed pure overlevelling) and strategy. Battles had been carried out with 6 characters in the party (2 rows of 3), but that's been changed in Suiko 4 where you have 4 in the party. Though you have 108 characters, about 1/2 of them don't fight (They're like blacksmiths, chefs, etc of your castle/cave/mansion), but among those who do, certain characters get special skills with each other so as to make battles more interesting and give each character something more unique. That, and the main character never fights with the 2-hand sword like so many typical heroes do = INSTANT WIN! 9/10.
Replayability: Unfortunately none at all. 0/10.
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SO series (Star Ocean, Star Ocean: The Second Story, Star Ocean: Blue Sphere, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time)
Star Ocean is yet another series worth of nothing but good games. Between the classic SO1, the ever-so-popular SO2 and its sequel, and the ever-so-controversial SO3. SO3 may be one of those love-it-or-hate-it games, but none can deny the fact that the entire series has been amazing. Admittedly I hadn't played what some consider the best of the series (SO2), but hey, my loss.
Graphics: Has improved tremendously. SO1 graphics were good for its time, same with SO2. SO3's graphics are nothing short of amazing. In terms of detail, it is far better than FF (Just look at the final tower in SO3. Absolute beauty.) The style is not the most realistic one, but it is just as well appreciated by everyone. 9/10 for SO3, 7/10 for SO1, SO2.
Story: Definitely a plus. It dares to go into areas that many RPG's don't. When SO1 was created, few other RPGs involved space and time travel (FFIV *space*, ToP *time*, CT *time*), and the story turned out great (Though I have to say ToP was better in terms of story >_>). In SO3, there came the biggest plot twist around, and many either hated it or loved it. Either way one had to admit that this plot twist while seemingly cliched, had never been seen in a game before. It was brave in doing new things, and it's turned out good. 9/10.
Characters: Similarly with FF, there is a range of good characters and a range of bad characters. However, due to the PA (Private Action) system where you get to talk with fellow characters while in towns, it gives far more depth to the character outside the main plotline than can be achieved normally (Hardly in other games do you get many chances to talk with other party members except during story sequences), and is a nice touch towards the game. 8/10
Gameplay: It's a cross between the Mana series' way of battling and the typical way. The best reflection of this would be the battle system found in Tales of Symphonia (But no one has a Gamecube nor played the JP-only version on the PS2 so >_>). Essentially battles are on an independent screen, but you fight in an 'arena' of sorts, so you can run around and attack using melee weaponry, spells, or AoE skills. It makes the battle overall more fun IMO. 10/10
Replayability: Star Ocean always had a system of having more characters than you can have in your party (8 of 12 can be recruited per game), so you have to play more than once to get all the character's endings (Star Ocean 2 had 87 character endings, and you get 8 per game. Har har good luck >_> Well, not that anyone bothered getting all of them anyway.) Add in the number of post-game dungeons and bosses and you have quite a bit to do. 8/10.
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And finally the last series. I would've wrote on Nippon Ichi and the Tales series, but I've only play 2 of each series compared to the many out there.
Xenosaga (Ep 1: Der Wille Zur Macht, Ep 2: Jenseits Von Gut Und Bose, Pied Piper, Ep *3: Thus Sprach Zarathustra*)
Xenosaga began with the roots of Xenogears, a game made concurrently with Final Fantasy VII. Square decided at that point that more budget should be given to FFVII instead of Xenogears, and hence XG ended up with a very very long and beautifully-done Disc 1 and a very very short and disappointing Disc 2. Ended up that the makers of Xenogears left Square because of that, and joined Namco. The series-of-6 known as Xenogears (XG was Ep 5) was restarted all over again, and the result is the Xenosaga trilogy. (Would've been 6 but Ep 2 didn't sell too well so they cut it down)
Story: Xenosaga is a sci-fi story with religious undertones. The story itself is highly complex on its own, and that's without considering any symbolism involved. Due to its story being somewhat based on Nietzsche's philosophies (The Xenosaga titles save Pied Piper are all the names of Nietzsche's books), Jungian philosophy and also Gnostic Christianity, much allusions are made in regards to these three aspects, granting the story more depth than your usual RPG storyline. The storyline evolves and each stage of development is pulled of flawlessly. The only issue I had with the story is that it is too long and complex to fit into 3 games, and that's probably going to end up with a very rushed episode 3. Damn you Namco. >_> 10/10
Graphics: Xenosaga Episode 1 had taken on a rather queer ideea of chibitizing all the main characters while leaving all side characters as normal realistic people. While I found no problem with that contrast, I also didn't realize that Shion was 22 years old until Ep. 2 came out and made the characters realistic so as not to have a jarring contrast. The graphics are decent but not the kind of aweing sceneries in the FF series. Well, then again, I've seen the Ep. 3 gameplay trailer and the graphics there are nothing short of superb so =) 7/10 for graphics.
Characters: Characters in Xenosaga are far better developed than those in any of the games above, but that's quite obvious given the fact that the games above don't have the same cast for multiple games (No X-2 did nothing to make Yuna or Rikku seem better. In fact I would go as far as saying that X-2 ruined the two, particularly Rikku. =\ Oh well there went my favourite FFX char. >_>) Due to this, characters will only seem as developed if you play 1 and 2, and not either. While there are one or two hated characters, there are far more liked ones against that (They can make you like Albedo, and the only other two villains who've done that is Kefka and Luca Blight. Magus doesn't count since he's not really a villain). Far more development is also given to side characters than in other games, and that can't be much of a fault because it isn't compromising on the main party's development. 9/10.
Gameplay: Battles involve pressing a sequence of attacks to do a certain attack, but isn't like SO or Mana's fighting. This would be more of a cross between SO and FF, but more towards FF since it takes out SO's defining battle element. While in Xeno 1 the battle was simple and mainly involved doing strong attacks, Xeno 2 took that out the window and made it extremely complex what with zones positions and all. Essentially that made it hell to anyone who didn't get the system and made battles extremely easy to anyone who did. Serious imbalance if you ask me. In addition, Xeno Ep 2 dungeons mainly consist of nothing but mindless puzzles. Which idiot member of the world's biggest high-tech corporation would use a huge glass platform and blocks below it as a security measure? 7/10 for Ep 1, 6/10 for Ep. 2.
Replayability: Meh, decent with its bosses and dungeons and all. Nothing great like SO though. 7/10.
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I'm just one person, but if graphics are all that FF's about, then what's so great about it? You all need new games yo, view your games from way more PoVs than the FF-fanboy.
Of course, I'm somewhat of a Xeno-fanboy myself, >_> Oh well >_>
All that said, there's a lot of games I didn't say that are absolutely great and worth trying out, including but not limited to
Arc the Lad series
Castlevania series
Tales series
Nippon Ichi games (DISGAEA <3)
Lunar series
Breath of Fire series
Fire Emblem series =)
Any others I missed out? Hmm.
Now you know why I took two days to write this out >_>
I have come to a realization that there are still many rather uninformed RPG gamers of what games are good and what aren't. For example we have Kevin Wong over here who decided to borrow FFXII instead of DQVIII (Which for non-gamers is pretty much paramount to 1. Bad taste in games 2. Lack of knowledge in regards to good games 3. FF Fanboyism 4. An unforgivable sin.)
I hath taken it upon myself to tell the readers of my blog of the games out there less appreciated by AHEM certain people, played but never completed by AHEM certain people, stopped playing due to an incapability to deliver curry like AHEM some people, or just an incapability of finding such a rare game (I had to borrow a number of games from Cleon just because he went to Johor quite often and had good taste in games too)
Firstly I must begin by saying why FF is mediocre.
Fanboy/Myth No.1: ZOMG FF HAS TEH GUD GARPHICZ LOLOL!!!!shiftoneoneone11!!
FF indeed has good graphics, but to buy a game due to good graphics is very superficial and Sidhant-like. >_> Also, graphics are far from making a game good (Disgaea owns the FF series easily. Heck, Chrono Trigger and a number of other SNES games own the FF series easily). Rather, they are eye candy so you can see that pwetty tree and pwetty FMV sequence involving being underwater and unable to breathe for 10 minutes all while kissing another person. No, graphics aren't going to save FF from mediocrity.
Fanboy/Myth No.2: EH THE CHARACTERS ROCK OK THEY HAVE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
No they aren't developed one bit. For each game of FF there are as many bad characters as good characters (This is PS only, since FF6 had way more awesome characters). To be exact, the characters get worse and worse as the games go on.
FF7: I didn't play, the characters were somewhat decent I believe except for ALL UR MATERIA R BELONGZORZ TO YUFFI MUAHAHA
FF8: LAWL TRAINS TRAINS TRAINS/ LAWL I LIKE A GIRL WHO LIKES TRAINS TRAINS TRAINS/ Angstangstangst (Admittedly, Squall is far better a character than Cloud)/ Rinoa who was decent but then she started liking Squall. >_> What character do we have that is awesome? Laguna. Anyone else? Arguably Squall. Anyone else? Uhh Zell/Quistis? Hmm
FF9: Save Vivi, Zidane, and Kuja most other characters were rather mediocre and not very original. That said Vivi is ownage, so I guess it makes up for it.
FF10: Auron Rikku Lulu vs Wakka Tidus Yuna Kimahri. Close, but the bad characters still triumph over the good ones
FFX2 is not a game so I'm not including it. But if I have to, the only character close to good was Paine. X2 Yuna contrary to SZ belief reeks of phail.
Fanboy/Myth No.3: FF has en amayzeeng storlylaine ohkay
While I would admit that originally FF did bear amazing storylines (4,5,6,7 and arguably 8 are testament to that), it gets worse. And worse. And worse. I have no idea what FFXII's storyline will be like but I'm not having high expectations to it.
FF6: LOOKIE I PUSH A STATUE AND WORLD GOES KABLEWIE
*World goes kablewie*
FF7: My main issue is with Shinra just disappearing after Disc 1, but apart from that I can't say much about FF7. Like I said, I didn't play it.
FF8: HAY GUYZ WE ALL CAME FRUM TEH SAYM ORPHANAGE LAWLZ
O RLY I CUN REMEMBAH
YA RLY I REMEMBAH BUT I DIDN'T SAY TIL DISC TOO COZ I DIDN'T FEEL LIKE IT LAWL
FF9: I can't remember much bad about this one, but they wasted alot of character potential with it. Oh well, was more of a tribute to old gamers anyway.
FFX: "I AM UR FATHER" "NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU" "I'M GONNA DIE" "NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU" "I'M NOT HUMAN" "NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU"
FFX2 doesn't have a storyline so I shan't get to that.
I don't remember any people saying that FF had good replayability so I need not talk about that.
Now given all that, I must add that it's not wrong to like a mediocre series; it's wrong to have a mediocre series and say that it's perfect while dissing other gems.
And yes I like FF as well I just don't see it in a fanboyish way like SZ and KW do.
All that said, let me get down to my rating of FF:
Story: 6/10 Decent stories ruined by bad segments. FFVI and FFVII should deserve a 9/10 though, and FFX2 a 1/10.
Graphics: 10/10 graphics are something FF is known for, usually superior to most other games. To say that FF's graphics stink is, to say the least, quite far from the truth (As far as RPGs on PS2 go anyway. Xbox has better graphics but less good games, nonetheless Jade Empire's graphics are amazing)
Character: 7/10 There's usually a really good character per game, a number decent characters and an equivalent amount of bad characters, but there's almost never a character that you would hate to the core unless intended.
Gameplay: Meh I can't judge this one FF's gameplay changes way too often.
Replayability: 3/10 Hardly any post-game things to do, if any at all. A secret boss or two at best, not much of post-game dungeons. FF4A has replayability, but that was like at best released less than a month ago. Prior to that? Nope.
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Now to start on other series:
Mana series (Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3, Legend of Mana, Sword of Mana, *Children of Mana*, *World of Mana*)
Note: *'d games mean they're not out yet.
The Mana series was an additional side FF-gaiden-esque game when the first Seiken Densetsu came out. After that, Square decided to split it into a new series of its own, the Mana series. Probably a few people here have played it (Mel, SZ, Jarrel *Who doesn't read this blog*, Me) and appreciate its value. A very original series, it's hard not to like its novelty unless you're KW.
Story: SD3 and LoM do not bear a single linear storyline but rather, you decide how it turns out (SD3 by choosing your party, LoM by the missions you select and your map layout) whereas both SoMs have a single storyline. N/A
Grapihcs: It caters less towards a realistic view that FF bears and more towards a fantasy-like feel. Just look at all of the Mana games up till now, and World of Mana. It's a style you either hate or love. Either way, the graphics are by no means bad given timeline (So don't tell me SoM and SD3 graphics stink). 7/10.
Characters: While I cannot vouch for Sword of Mana, Secret of Mana and Legend of Mana's main characters are for the most of it, silent. This gives you the ability to actually 'personalize' your characters. This works for some, this doesn't work for others. Personally I'm fine with it. 'sides, the silent character's what Link's all about. For SD3, the characters weren't particularly deep, but their character persoanlities were solid enough given that point of time. While I will admit that Duran and Angela aren't what one would call original, Riesz and Hawk are where it's it. =) N/A as well overall for the series
Gameplay: Characters walk around and battle on the same screen with all the enemies on it, unlike FF where battles start in an independent screen. Kingdom Hearts is the most similar one to the Mana series' method of fighting, just in 3D instead. This method of playing IMO is more engaging than FF's method of fighting and more action-based. Though it does kind of end up into a slash-slash-slash-POWERATTACK game, but hey, better than KH's 1-hit KO at high levels right. Admittedly this kind of fighting will get boring, but nonetheless it's still quite more fun than FF's fighting methods. Yet another for-or-against thing. 8/10.
Replayability: SoM1 had no replayability, and I don't know about Sword of Mana's replayability. For SD3 and Legend of Mana, though, the fact that the storyline wasn't linear meant that you could enjoy the game all over again with changes. Cleared SD3 once? You only played 3 of the 6 characters, and 1 of the 3 storylines, and 3 of the 24 final classes. Go do it again you. LoM's new game plus lets you keep whatever you had from the previous game so you can play Nightmare mode without uber death, and still enjoy playing with different side characters and different story quests. 8/10.
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Ok, that's one down. What's up next? Suikoden!
Suikoden series: (Suiko I, II, III, IV, Tactics, *V*)
Suikoden's Namco's go at making a story based upon - what's that - Suikoden. You don't get it, I assume. Suikoden's kanji is Sui2 Hu3 Zhuan4. There, now you get it. The series unlike FF and the Mana series is all based in one single world. A story based highly on the theme of war, it requires more than overlevelling to save the day; you need -ZOMG- brains and strategy.
Definitely, Cleon is a better critique of the series than I am, since he's played all 4 Suikos and is currently playing Tactics. In comparison I've only played II and III, and haven't actually completed either (I got to the last scene in both but didn't beat the boss for various reasons >_>), but well Cleon ain't the blogger so here I am.
Graphics: It has gotten progressively better. However, that doesn't change the fact that Suiko 1 and 3's graphics were considerably bad, whereas 2 and 4 are decent. 6/10 overall.
Story: Good. The story development is very solid, and the fact that all games take place in the same world make the overall story stronger. However, from what I see the story is progressively getting worse. Suiko 2 was a definite gem, but I can't say that about 3 and 4 didn't seem too good according to Cleon. I hope Suiko V changes that. 9/10 for Suiko II, 7/10 for the rest.
Characters: You have a hundred and eight of them each game. 'nuff said. Character development is usually only strong for the main characters though, and little to no effort is made towards further developing any other characters save those closely associated with the main characters. That said, each character has their backstory and personality, which is pretty good IMO considering there's 108 of them. 7/10.
Gameplay: Oh, where do I get started. There are 3 forms of battles: Duels, Battles between two parties (IOW a typical fight), and wars. The differences you can kinda tell easily. Duels and wars are rare, but wars are an important part of the story, and a difficult one too. They require much thought (Suiko 2 at least, Suiko 3 needed pure overlevelling) and strategy. Battles had been carried out with 6 characters in the party (2 rows of 3), but that's been changed in Suiko 4 where you have 4 in the party. Though you have 108 characters, about 1/2 of them don't fight (They're like blacksmiths, chefs, etc of your castle/cave/mansion), but among those who do, certain characters get special skills with each other so as to make battles more interesting and give each character something more unique. That, and the main character never fights with the 2-hand sword like so many typical heroes do = INSTANT WIN! 9/10.
Replayability: Unfortunately none at all. 0/10.
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SO series (Star Ocean, Star Ocean: The Second Story, Star Ocean: Blue Sphere, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time)
Star Ocean is yet another series worth of nothing but good games. Between the classic SO1, the ever-so-popular SO2 and its sequel, and the ever-so-controversial SO3. SO3 may be one of those love-it-or-hate-it games, but none can deny the fact that the entire series has been amazing. Admittedly I hadn't played what some consider the best of the series (SO2), but hey, my loss.
Graphics: Has improved tremendously. SO1 graphics were good for its time, same with SO2. SO3's graphics are nothing short of amazing. In terms of detail, it is far better than FF (Just look at the final tower in SO3. Absolute beauty.) The style is not the most realistic one, but it is just as well appreciated by everyone. 9/10 for SO3, 7/10 for SO1, SO2.
Story: Definitely a plus. It dares to go into areas that many RPG's don't. When SO1 was created, few other RPGs involved space and time travel (FFIV *space*, ToP *time*, CT *time*), and the story turned out great (Though I have to say ToP was better in terms of story >_>). In SO3, there came the biggest plot twist around, and many either hated it or loved it. Either way one had to admit that this plot twist while seemingly cliched, had never been seen in a game before. It was brave in doing new things, and it's turned out good. 9/10.
Characters: Similarly with FF, there is a range of good characters and a range of bad characters. However, due to the PA (Private Action) system where you get to talk with fellow characters while in towns, it gives far more depth to the character outside the main plotline than can be achieved normally (Hardly in other games do you get many chances to talk with other party members except during story sequences), and is a nice touch towards the game. 8/10
Gameplay: It's a cross between the Mana series' way of battling and the typical way. The best reflection of this would be the battle system found in Tales of Symphonia (But no one has a Gamecube nor played the JP-only version on the PS2 so >_>). Essentially battles are on an independent screen, but you fight in an 'arena' of sorts, so you can run around and attack using melee weaponry, spells, or AoE skills. It makes the battle overall more fun IMO. 10/10
Replayability: Star Ocean always had a system of having more characters than you can have in your party (8 of 12 can be recruited per game), so you have to play more than once to get all the character's endings (Star Ocean 2 had 87 character endings, and you get 8 per game. Har har good luck >_> Well, not that anyone bothered getting all of them anyway.) Add in the number of post-game dungeons and bosses and you have quite a bit to do. 8/10.
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And finally the last series. I would've wrote on Nippon Ichi and the Tales series, but I've only play 2 of each series compared to the many out there.
Xenosaga (Ep 1: Der Wille Zur Macht, Ep 2: Jenseits Von Gut Und Bose, Pied Piper, Ep *3: Thus Sprach Zarathustra*)
Xenosaga began with the roots of Xenogears, a game made concurrently with Final Fantasy VII. Square decided at that point that more budget should be given to FFVII instead of Xenogears, and hence XG ended up with a very very long and beautifully-done Disc 1 and a very very short and disappointing Disc 2. Ended up that the makers of Xenogears left Square because of that, and joined Namco. The series-of-6 known as Xenogears (XG was Ep 5) was restarted all over again, and the result is the Xenosaga trilogy. (Would've been 6 but Ep 2 didn't sell too well so they cut it down)
Story: Xenosaga is a sci-fi story with religious undertones. The story itself is highly complex on its own, and that's without considering any symbolism involved. Due to its story being somewhat based on Nietzsche's philosophies (The Xenosaga titles save Pied Piper are all the names of Nietzsche's books), Jungian philosophy and also Gnostic Christianity, much allusions are made in regards to these three aspects, granting the story more depth than your usual RPG storyline. The storyline evolves and each stage of development is pulled of flawlessly. The only issue I had with the story is that it is too long and complex to fit into 3 games, and that's probably going to end up with a very rushed episode 3. Damn you Namco. >_> 10/10
Graphics: Xenosaga Episode 1 had taken on a rather queer ideea of chibitizing all the main characters while leaving all side characters as normal realistic people. While I found no problem with that contrast, I also didn't realize that Shion was 22 years old until Ep. 2 came out and made the characters realistic so as not to have a jarring contrast. The graphics are decent but not the kind of aweing sceneries in the FF series. Well, then again, I've seen the Ep. 3 gameplay trailer and the graphics there are nothing short of superb so =) 7/10 for graphics.
Characters: Characters in Xenosaga are far better developed than those in any of the games above, but that's quite obvious given the fact that the games above don't have the same cast for multiple games (No X-2 did nothing to make Yuna or Rikku seem better. In fact I would go as far as saying that X-2 ruined the two, particularly Rikku. =\ Oh well there went my favourite FFX char. >_>) Due to this, characters will only seem as developed if you play 1 and 2, and not either. While there are one or two hated characters, there are far more liked ones against that (They can make you like Albedo, and the only other two villains who've done that is Kefka and Luca Blight. Magus doesn't count since he's not really a villain). Far more development is also given to side characters than in other games, and that can't be much of a fault because it isn't compromising on the main party's development. 9/10.
Gameplay: Battles involve pressing a sequence of attacks to do a certain attack, but isn't like SO or Mana's fighting. This would be more of a cross between SO and FF, but more towards FF since it takes out SO's defining battle element. While in Xeno 1 the battle was simple and mainly involved doing strong attacks, Xeno 2 took that out the window and made it extremely complex what with zones positions and all. Essentially that made it hell to anyone who didn't get the system and made battles extremely easy to anyone who did. Serious imbalance if you ask me. In addition, Xeno Ep 2 dungeons mainly consist of nothing but mindless puzzles. Which idiot member of the world's biggest high-tech corporation would use a huge glass platform and blocks below it as a security measure? 7/10 for Ep 1, 6/10 for Ep. 2.
Replayability: Meh, decent with its bosses and dungeons and all. Nothing great like SO though. 7/10.
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I'm just one person, but if graphics are all that FF's about, then what's so great about it? You all need new games yo, view your games from way more PoVs than the FF-fanboy.
Of course, I'm somewhat of a Xeno-fanboy myself, >_> Oh well >_>
All that said, there's a lot of games I didn't say that are absolutely great and worth trying out, including but not limited to
Arc the Lad series
Castlevania series
Tales series
Nippon Ichi games (DISGAEA <3)
Lunar series
Breath of Fire series
Fire Emblem series =)
Any others I missed out? Hmm.
Now you know why I took two days to write this out >_>
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
The Problem with Christianity
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Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market-place, and cried incessantly: "I am looking for God! I am looking for God!"
As many of those who did not believe in God were standing together there, he excited considerable laughter. Have you lost him, then? said one. Did he lose his way like a child? said another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? or emigrated? Thus they shouted and laughed. The madman sprang into their midst and pierced them with his glances.
"Where has God gone?" he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. We are his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained the earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not perpetually falling? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is it not more and more night coming on all the time? Must not lanterns be lit in the morning? Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we not smell anything yet of God's decomposition? Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? With what water could we purify ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whosoever shall be born after us - for the sake of this deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto."
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science 108
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Most Christians at a point of time question their religion and the existence of God. While I do not question the latter, recently I've been brought to do the former.
Long back ago when WTC was destroyed by terrorists, many people questioned Christianity. Some went into the religion, and some left. Both have reasons. Some asked where God was, and some said God was there because few people were in the building at the time. While some were unconvinced, some Christians felt that God had intervened in this way.
More recently in the Tsunami, many were killed, families destroyed, lives ruined, and many things undescribable by words. This time, far more people questioned the existence of God. Obviously 'few people were on the islands' is not going to make sense nor is it close to true, but some stories of Christians surviving (like Samuel Chan's story during the Superstar Virgo bible study) led them to believe that this was a warning from God. Some also said that this was a chance for Christians to show their goodness, spreading the truth.
Now assume for a moment this is true. Now comes a simple question: Why the heck would this be a chance for Christians to show their goodness if it killed so many non-christians? But that's not relevent, just some amusing food for thought.
Everywhere in churches people talk of God's graciousness, God's kindness and absolute morality. God bears ultimate compassion, and only because of the grace of God do people go into Heaven.
Hello, can anyone tell me with a straight face that God sent a tsunami to Earth to be a warning and to let Christians show the truth, meanwhile letting all who died go to Heaven?
People always say that everyone is sinful and only salvation can be achieved through Jesus Christ (Who incidentally kena owned by consumerism but that's 2 posts down). But why the heck are we advocating God as such a compassionate being? The only way those two aforementioned events could have occured would be if
1. God didn't exist
2. God existed and let the event occur
3. God's not as omnipotent as people put him as.
Christians aren't going to say 1 is true, that leaves 2 and 3. If 3 was true, then that's quite contradictory of our religion isn't it. If 2 was true (It makes more sense than 3 honestly), then we bring out more questions
Did God do this to turn people to Christianity? Or did he do this as a warning to the rest who survive?
Obviously neither answer is going to reflect on God as a compassionate being. Which Christian honestly believes that it's worth killing one million people to turn people to Christianity, or even worse, one million people on the death toll just to serve as a warning.
Most Christians just place blind faith in their God, never questioning Him and His actions, never questioning the bible, always thinking that God is the king of mercy and compassion, when he so obviously isn't. These Christians worship a God of mercy and compassion. Hello, say that in a victim's face.
From Mike's blog and from Mr. Johnaton Ng, "Many can view God as a God of love, but few can view Him as a God of wrath. Many can view God as a God of mercy, but few can view Him as a God of judgement."
Some Christians say that God is absolute moral. What worse lies can be said? Many, but that's irrelevent. Saying that God is absolute moral is a defiance to the very basis of morality. Is morality now defined by the actions of an omnipotent entity, or is God not absolute moral? I'd take the latter, thank you very much.
Christians worship an alleged God who is all compassionate and merciful. A God who is perfect. HELLO WAKE UP ALREADY LAH! God isn't going to be perfect by your standards. By our standards he's probably some omnipotent dude with his ups and downs. Perhaps he is perfect, but not by our definition of that word.
Christianity as it is now lies in absolute hypocrisy, lies and blind faith in a God whom is not what they think He is. Will this ever change? Who knows.
Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market-place, and cried incessantly: "I am looking for God! I am looking for God!"
As many of those who did not believe in God were standing together there, he excited considerable laughter. Have you lost him, then? said one. Did he lose his way like a child? said another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? or emigrated? Thus they shouted and laughed. The madman sprang into their midst and pierced them with his glances.
"Where has God gone?" he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. We are his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained the earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not perpetually falling? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is it not more and more night coming on all the time? Must not lanterns be lit in the morning? Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we not smell anything yet of God's decomposition? Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? With what water could we purify ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whosoever shall be born after us - for the sake of this deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto."
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science 108
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most Christians at a point of time question their religion and the existence of God. While I do not question the latter, recently I've been brought to do the former.
Long back ago when WTC was destroyed by terrorists, many people questioned Christianity. Some went into the religion, and some left. Both have reasons. Some asked where God was, and some said God was there because few people were in the building at the time. While some were unconvinced, some Christians felt that God had intervened in this way.
More recently in the Tsunami, many were killed, families destroyed, lives ruined, and many things undescribable by words. This time, far more people questioned the existence of God. Obviously 'few people were on the islands' is not going to make sense nor is it close to true, but some stories of Christians surviving (like Samuel Chan's story during the Superstar Virgo bible study) led them to believe that this was a warning from God. Some also said that this was a chance for Christians to show their goodness, spreading the truth.
Now assume for a moment this is true. Now comes a simple question: Why the heck would this be a chance for Christians to show their goodness if it killed so many non-christians? But that's not relevent, just some amusing food for thought.
Everywhere in churches people talk of God's graciousness, God's kindness and absolute morality. God bears ultimate compassion, and only because of the grace of God do people go into Heaven.
Hello, can anyone tell me with a straight face that God sent a tsunami to Earth to be a warning and to let Christians show the truth, meanwhile letting all who died go to Heaven?
People always say that everyone is sinful and only salvation can be achieved through Jesus Christ (Who incidentally kena owned by consumerism but that's 2 posts down). But why the heck are we advocating God as such a compassionate being? The only way those two aforementioned events could have occured would be if
1. God didn't exist
2. God existed and let the event occur
3. God's not as omnipotent as people put him as.
Christians aren't going to say 1 is true, that leaves 2 and 3. If 3 was true, then that's quite contradictory of our religion isn't it. If 2 was true (It makes more sense than 3 honestly), then we bring out more questions
Did God do this to turn people to Christianity? Or did he do this as a warning to the rest who survive?
Obviously neither answer is going to reflect on God as a compassionate being. Which Christian honestly believes that it's worth killing one million people to turn people to Christianity, or even worse, one million people on the death toll just to serve as a warning.
Most Christians just place blind faith in their God, never questioning Him and His actions, never questioning the bible, always thinking that God is the king of mercy and compassion, when he so obviously isn't. These Christians worship a God of mercy and compassion. Hello, say that in a victim's face.
From Mike's blog and from Mr. Johnaton Ng, "Many can view God as a God of love, but few can view Him as a God of wrath. Many can view God as a God of mercy, but few can view Him as a God of judgement."
Some Christians say that God is absolute moral. What worse lies can be said? Many, but that's irrelevent. Saying that God is absolute moral is a defiance to the very basis of morality. Is morality now defined by the actions of an omnipotent entity, or is God not absolute moral? I'd take the latter, thank you very much.
Christians worship an alleged God who is all compassionate and merciful. A God who is perfect. HELLO WAKE UP ALREADY LAH! God isn't going to be perfect by your standards. By our standards he's probably some omnipotent dude with his ups and downs. Perhaps he is perfect, but not by our definition of that word.
Christianity as it is now lies in absolute hypocrisy, lies and blind faith in a God whom is not what they think He is. Will this ever change? Who knows.
Monday, December 19, 2005
JK and DDR
JK on DDR.
Truer pictures have never been drawn. Hear, hear.
*Whoever doesn't get it should read JK's latest post on DDR*
Edit: Uhh "JK on DDR." is a link. I have got to colour links differently next time. >_> Oh, and Jun Yi has a better version on his blog done up by MS Paint. W00t >_>
Truer pictures have never been drawn. Hear, hear.
*Whoever doesn't get it should read JK's latest post on DDR*
Edit: Uhh "JK on DDR." is a link. I have got to colour links differently next time. >_> Oh, and Jun Yi has a better version on his blog done up by MS Paint. W00t >_>
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Consumerism vs Christ
Finally finished carolling at Tong Building (Next to Paragon and opposite Takashimaya).
Sian, quite tired. BUT I MUST BLOG because my blog's been deaded for who knows how long. Sorry >_>
Personally for a Christian, when we walk along Orchard Road (Hehe Providence Presbyterian Church is so close to Plaza Sing =), and McDonald's was just a walk away until teh Mac's at YMCA got replaced by some stupid thingammo >_<) we see a whole ton of Christmas lights and all that. The Istana and Plaza Sing are chockful of people, and stuffed with similar amounts of lights. Ooh, want romantic view of fireflies with your partner don't need to go to Malaysia anymore, can just wear the masks left over from SARS, head over to the Istana and sneeze alot while screaming "I GOT BIRD FLU" at night. Sure got a lot of fireflies surrounding the trees for you and your loved one to appreciate alone. Wah, so romantic. Just ignore the traffic jam behind and all is silent.
Then we go inside Plaza Sing which if I'm not wrong still has that Christmas Fantasy thing going on where people dressed up like Snow White sing Hit Me Baby One More Time to hordes of 5-year old future mindless-followers-of-music I mean kids =). I'm sure there's a Watson's nearby selling Rappin' Santas for kids to love. I mean come on, who doesn't love pop-culture fairytale characters and Rappin' Santas? I know I'm one. >_>
Then we head over to Takashimaya where we see a gigantic Christmas tree roughly 5 stories high (Or higher than that). I'm sure if I went to the ground floor I could see a $1mil pricetag on it with the ad "Surely your child needs a bigger tree for all his presents, right?" with lots and lots of salespeople with great beaming smiles directing you to each store in the area to cater to your Christmas needs of buying for the Season. If you don't they strike you with the Lv.10 Guilt-Inducing Stare of Doom (Ooh now we know KW's job) and make you wish that you had bought that 24-karat gold ring with studded 16-karat diamonds for your girlfriend instead of that stainless steel ring with a 1-karat diamond. No significant other? Professional Dating Agencies can assign someone to help you get that special someone (They're called Personal Dating Assistant) because Singapore must be shopping hub and cannot go shopping without a girlfriend or wife because we all know girls spend money way more easily than guys, and girls wouldn't get much money to spend if they were alone, right.
Next we head over to Lucky Plaza where we have bright lights and Christmas lights in a pseudo-Chinese marriage room-esque feeling in the front area. But that's not important is it, it is but decorations. They instead bear a bright emblem of christmas lights on the front wall saying "Jesus Christ was born, the reason for the season" WHOA DEEP SIA food for thought eh got reason for season and it's not consumerism whoa now we know Jesus makes the world go round GO CHRISTIANITY >_>
See Jesus is one who will rid the world of evil, and rid you of your evil too. And what is the most basic fundamental point of evil? Money. because money² = evil. Therefore Jesus took the initiative and introduced the Season where people waste more money and give it to where all evil lies. What great sacrifices were made, we must all turn to Christianity and buy more things for our loved ones. It is the only way of cleansing and salvation for our money-bearing wallets and souls.
Gosh what have I just said. Ignore that.
Seriously, Christmas is symbolic of the birth of Christ (Even though religious scholars prove otherwise, but hey you won't want to sing a carol called "O Little Town of Nazareth", right? Neither would I). What happens? Consumerism rears its ugly head and takes out the "Christ" and turns it into "Ex". Whoa, suddenly every shopping centre around Orchard Road is justified in giving fricking high prices for every single thing, because the season deems it acceptable wad. Ex things for XMas, everyone happy happy =) then buy lor. No choice wad. Don't buy got salesperson Lv.10 Guilt-Inducing Stare of Doom you into picturing your friends in tears because you didn't buy them that XBox package in the commercials these days (Ignore the fact that friends don't let other friends buy XBoxes. Oh well I couldn't stop Bryan he did it already. What kind of friends does he have sia =\) Nuu, you think, I must buy this even though school starts two weeks from now. Surely my friend's two weeks worth of entertainment (Assume that they have no social life) is worth my wasting a few hundred dollars.
But what about the others, you ask? Surely I don't have enough money to cater to them all? Whoa, no worries, one of them says. You can stand to win $1000 worth of cash if you spend $100 in Carrefour (Not sure who would buy Christmas presents from a supermarket though). $Cha-Ching$, you think, and use up $100 dollars. You fail to get that $1k, and you think damn, I wasted another $100.
No worries! The bank has got it all covered up for you. Just borrow ten thousand today and regret it a few months down the road when you find yourself incapable of paying! Hey, that's a good idea, you think, and borrow money.
You spend it all, and you still can't get enough presents because Lv.10 Guilt-Inducing Stares of Doom always work on you whether or not you bought a Baby-G or a Rolex. Well, sucks to you because the gambling den I MEAN Integrated Resort hasn't been opened yet. Good luck next year ;) Oh, by the way, would you like fries with that? Just an additional $1.80.
Consumerism: 1
Jesus Christ: 0
Sian, quite tired. BUT I MUST BLOG because my blog's been deaded for who knows how long. Sorry >_>
Personally for a Christian, when we walk along Orchard Road (Hehe Providence Presbyterian Church is so close to Plaza Sing =), and McDonald's was just a walk away until teh Mac's at YMCA got replaced by some stupid thingammo >_<) we see a whole ton of Christmas lights and all that. The Istana and Plaza Sing are chockful of people, and stuffed with similar amounts of lights. Ooh, want romantic view of fireflies with your partner don't need to go to Malaysia anymore, can just wear the masks left over from SARS, head over to the Istana and sneeze alot while screaming "I GOT BIRD FLU" at night. Sure got a lot of fireflies surrounding the trees for you and your loved one to appreciate alone. Wah, so romantic. Just ignore the traffic jam behind and all is silent.
Then we go inside Plaza Sing which if I'm not wrong still has that Christmas Fantasy thing going on where people dressed up like Snow White sing Hit Me Baby One More Time to hordes of 5-year old future mindless-followers-of-music I mean kids =). I'm sure there's a Watson's nearby selling Rappin' Santas for kids to love. I mean come on, who doesn't love pop-culture fairytale characters and Rappin' Santas? I know I'm one. >_>
Then we head over to Takashimaya where we see a gigantic Christmas tree roughly 5 stories high (Or higher than that). I'm sure if I went to the ground floor I could see a $1mil pricetag on it with the ad "Surely your child needs a bigger tree for all his presents, right?" with lots and lots of salespeople with great beaming smiles directing you to each store in the area to cater to your Christmas needs of buying for the Season. If you don't they strike you with the Lv.10 Guilt-Inducing Stare of Doom (Ooh now we know KW's job) and make you wish that you had bought that 24-karat gold ring with studded 16-karat diamonds for your girlfriend instead of that stainless steel ring with a 1-karat diamond. No significant other? Professional Dating Agencies can assign someone to help you get that special someone (They're called Personal Dating Assistant) because Singapore must be shopping hub and cannot go shopping without a girlfriend or wife because we all know girls spend money way more easily than guys, and girls wouldn't get much money to spend if they were alone, right.
Next we head over to Lucky Plaza where we have bright lights and Christmas lights in a pseudo-Chinese marriage room-esque feeling in the front area. But that's not important is it, it is but decorations. They instead bear a bright emblem of christmas lights on the front wall saying "Jesus Christ was born, the reason for the season" WHOA DEEP SIA food for thought eh got reason for season and it's not consumerism whoa now we know Jesus makes the world go round GO CHRISTIANITY >_>
See Jesus is one who will rid the world of evil, and rid you of your evil too. And what is the most basic fundamental point of evil? Money. because money² = evil. Therefore Jesus took the initiative and introduced the Season where people waste more money and give it to where all evil lies. What great sacrifices were made, we must all turn to Christianity and buy more things for our loved ones. It is the only way of cleansing and salvation for our money-bearing wallets and souls.
Gosh what have I just said. Ignore that.
Seriously, Christmas is symbolic of the birth of Christ (Even though religious scholars prove otherwise, but hey you won't want to sing a carol called "O Little Town of Nazareth", right? Neither would I). What happens? Consumerism rears its ugly head and takes out the "Christ" and turns it into "Ex". Whoa, suddenly every shopping centre around Orchard Road is justified in giving fricking high prices for every single thing, because the season deems it acceptable wad. Ex things for XMas, everyone happy happy =) then buy lor. No choice wad. Don't buy got salesperson Lv.10 Guilt-Inducing Stare of Doom you into picturing your friends in tears because you didn't buy them that XBox package in the commercials these days (Ignore the fact that friends don't let other friends buy XBoxes. Oh well I couldn't stop Bryan he did it already. What kind of friends does he have sia =\) Nuu, you think, I must buy this even though school starts two weeks from now. Surely my friend's two weeks worth of entertainment (Assume that they have no social life) is worth my wasting a few hundred dollars.
But what about the others, you ask? Surely I don't have enough money to cater to them all? Whoa, no worries, one of them says. You can stand to win $1000 worth of cash if you spend $100 in Carrefour (Not sure who would buy Christmas presents from a supermarket though). $Cha-Ching$, you think, and use up $100 dollars. You fail to get that $1k, and you think damn, I wasted another $100.
No worries! The bank has got it all covered up for you. Just borrow ten thousand today and regret it a few months down the road when you find yourself incapable of paying! Hey, that's a good idea, you think, and borrow money.
You spend it all, and you still can't get enough presents because Lv.10 Guilt-Inducing Stares of Doom always work on you whether or not you bought a Baby-G or a Rolex. Well, sucks to you because the gambling den I MEAN Integrated Resort hasn't been opened yet. Good luck next year ;) Oh, by the way, would you like fries with that? Just an additional $1.80.
Consumerism: 1
Jesus Christ: 0
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
A Testimonial for Gwin
I decided not to post the yawningbread article because the flaws in that article were quite obvious this time, compared to the previous one. I have however decided to post my bro's Testimonial so people like Gid and Mel can make fun of it, and the rest of you will be warned about what kind of BS our teachers can pull off next time. My commentaries will be in brackets.
Name: Ong Yu Heng (Not Godwin eh =\)
Reason for Leaving: Completion of Study (Otherwise wad. They write testimonials for emigrants and dropouts arh?)
Mr Ong Yu Heng was a student of this college from 2004-2005 where he pursued (Isn't it persue?) a course in the Science Faculty.
Yu Heng is an amiable student with good communication skills (O rly). Approachable and friendly (BS), he relates well to his tutors and peers alike. A responsible and trustworthy team player (O RLY), Yu Heng can be relied on to complete assigned tasks competently and efficiently (You don't rely on people to complete tasks incompetently right). An important and constructive member of his "Project Work" (Ooh, inverted commas. Sounds so suspicious) group, Yu Heng was instrumental in guiding his diverse group members towards the completion of theuir tasks. Sensible and helpful (BS), Yu Heng takes the initiative to lend a helping hand whenever the need ariswes (O rly). During the College Fun Fair, he stayed back - way beyond his shift hours to ensure that there was sufficient manpower for the class' games stall (Scarly he kena sabo into it den how). It must be added here (O rly) that this was just one of the many occasions that he has lent his support to the college in his quiet and unassuming way (QUIET AND UNASSUMING WAY *Raises wtf flag*) His sense of integrity is indeed very strong as he offers his time and completes his duties to the best of his abilities wihtout any supervision required.
During his two years at our college, Yu Heng has made satisfactory (Not good den say lar) progress in his academic subjects. Diligent and teachable (Wah, how come he's never diligent or teachable for me sia. =\ My bro hates me ;_;), Yu Heng is a steady and highly motivated learner ("Aah Science at this level is BS" I quote Yu Heng) who is serious about improving his grades (O rly). He is always prepared for tutorials and took the initiative to clarify his doubts with his tutors (IOW he dumb cannot understand lecture and tutorial larh)
Besides academic excellence, Yu Heng also strove to participate in various college activities (BS I bet he kena taupok blackmail) As a dedicated member of the Speakers' Club, he attended the Club's sessions faithfully (No contribution then say lar) and honed his oratorical skills conscientiously (No wonder he can BS so well >_>). Indeed, Yu heng thinks through his ideas thoroughly and articulates them convincingly.
As part of the college 'Community Involvement Programme' (I tot CIP was to everyone), Yu Heng also helped enthusiastically in the sale of flags for several welfare organizations and raised funds for the Whispering Hearts Family Service Centre (Wah selling flags demn enthu sia my bro xi bei shiok dun play play)
Whatever Yu heng undertakes in future (TEH UNDERTAKER), one can be sure that he will bring the same sense of diligence and commitment that he has shown during the two years at Saint Andrew's Junior College.
-----------------------------------------------
Wow. Gwin is a hardworking diligent nice person? Wah, that's like saying Gid's a guaizai. o_O
Oh well he's gone for NS anyway so >_>
Name: Ong Yu Heng (Not Godwin eh =\)
Reason for Leaving: Completion of Study (Otherwise wad. They write testimonials for emigrants and dropouts arh?)
Mr Ong Yu Heng was a student of this college from 2004-2005 where he pursued (Isn't it persue?) a course in the Science Faculty.
Yu Heng is an amiable student with good communication skills (O rly). Approachable and friendly (BS), he relates well to his tutors and peers alike. A responsible and trustworthy team player (O RLY), Yu Heng can be relied on to complete assigned tasks competently and efficiently (You don't rely on people to complete tasks incompetently right). An important and constructive member of his "Project Work" (Ooh, inverted commas. Sounds so suspicious) group, Yu Heng was instrumental in guiding his diverse group members towards the completion of theuir tasks. Sensible and helpful (BS), Yu Heng takes the initiative to lend a helping hand whenever the need ariswes (O rly). During the College Fun Fair, he stayed back - way beyond his shift hours to ensure that there was sufficient manpower for the class' games stall (Scarly he kena sabo into it den how). It must be added here (O rly) that this was just one of the many occasions that he has lent his support to the college in his quiet and unassuming way (QUIET AND UNASSUMING WAY *Raises wtf flag*) His sense of integrity is indeed very strong as he offers his time and completes his duties to the best of his abilities wihtout any supervision required.
During his two years at our college, Yu Heng has made satisfactory (Not good den say lar) progress in his academic subjects. Diligent and teachable (Wah, how come he's never diligent or teachable for me sia. =\ My bro hates me ;_;), Yu Heng is a steady and highly motivated learner ("Aah Science at this level is BS" I quote Yu Heng) who is serious about improving his grades (O rly). He is always prepared for tutorials and took the initiative to clarify his doubts with his tutors (IOW he dumb cannot understand lecture and tutorial larh)
Besides academic excellence, Yu Heng also strove to participate in various college activities (BS I bet he kena taupok blackmail) As a dedicated member of the Speakers' Club, he attended the Club's sessions faithfully (No contribution then say lar) and honed his oratorical skills conscientiously (No wonder he can BS so well >_>). Indeed, Yu heng thinks through his ideas thoroughly and articulates them convincingly.
As part of the college 'Community Involvement Programme' (I tot CIP was to everyone), Yu Heng also helped enthusiastically in the sale of flags for several welfare organizations and raised funds for the Whispering Hearts Family Service Centre (Wah selling flags demn enthu sia my bro xi bei shiok dun play play)
Whatever Yu heng undertakes in future (TEH UNDERTAKER), one can be sure that he will bring the same sense of diligence and commitment that he has shown during the two years at Saint Andrew's Junior College.
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Wow. Gwin is a hardworking diligent nice person? Wah, that's like saying Gid's a guaizai. o_O
Oh well he's gone for NS anyway so >_>
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Sleepovers, Games and Reminiscences
Sorry, intended to blog earlier but this is what happened:
5th: Went to WH's house and stayed over, no access of computer
6th: Came back at evening, quite tired didn't use computer
7th: 1 day before bro leaves for NS just play GG and Katamari, didn't blog
8th: Bro leaves for NS sian tired didn't blog
So today being 9th and my blog being teh Lv.10 Crypt Lord of Doom, and with a whole ton of things to write about, I hath decided to not blog about what happened during sleepover, since so many of us know, and just put down some notes. *Very very game-oriented*
1. JK gives a very scary look whenever I mention the word 'DDR'.
2. WH's not bad at controller DDR but I pwn him on Legend of Max anyway lawl >_>
3. Peter's Axl Low is not bad but not cheap enough (j.S ftw dude)
4. A.B.A. suicide bomber is tougher than I imagined
5. Venom 214p s.p owns for annoyance >_>
6. SZ can play Mahjong not bad o_O
7. JK plays Mahjong very scarily o_O
8. SZ gets freaked out very very easily
9. Juon 2 isn't scary when you have a group of people watching it and I'm one of them =10. WH's OBCESSED WITH POKEMON GAMES ARGH but I nearly beat him at Pikachu Volleyball 15-14 NUUU
11. SZ's obcessed with FFX-2
12. Rakion is very o_O
13. Gunbound has changed waaaaay too much >_>
14. Duel Masters is >_>
15. My FFX2 blitzball skillz r not gone yet
16. KEVIN WONG PLAYS MAHJONG but he's not that good at it
17. Glenn (WH's cousin) cannot sing for nuts
18. WH's stuck on the Woglinde and SZ's stuck on the Elsa trying to deliver curry. Way to get stuck on such a great game >_>
19. 4 Leopaldons on one screen = Major wth
20. Dark Angel is funnnnnnn to do on people >_>
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Not too in the mood to continue blogging right now, so I'll leave my SMW post and my NS post till later (Maybe afternoon/night or tomorrow)
5th: Went to WH's house and stayed over, no access of computer
6th: Came back at evening, quite tired didn't use computer
7th: 1 day before bro leaves for NS just play GG and Katamari, didn't blog
8th: Bro leaves for NS sian tired didn't blog
So today being 9th and my blog being teh Lv.10 Crypt Lord of Doom, and with a whole ton of things to write about, I hath decided to not blog about what happened during sleepover, since so many of us know, and just put down some notes. *Very very game-oriented*
1. JK gives a very scary look whenever I mention the word 'DDR'.
2. WH's not bad at controller DDR but I pwn him on Legend of Max anyway lawl >_>
3. Peter's Axl Low is not bad but not cheap enough (j.S ftw dude)
4. A.B.A. suicide bomber is tougher than I imagined
5. Venom 214p s.p owns for annoyance >_>
6. SZ can play Mahjong not bad o_O
7. JK plays Mahjong very scarily o_O
8. SZ gets freaked out very very easily
9. Juon 2 isn't scary when you have a group of people watching it and I'm one of them =10. WH's OBCESSED WITH POKEMON GAMES ARGH but I nearly beat him at Pikachu Volleyball 15-14 NUUU
11. SZ's obcessed with FFX-2
12. Rakion is very o_O
13. Gunbound has changed waaaaay too much >_>
14. Duel Masters is >_>
15. My FFX2 blitzball skillz r not gone yet
16. KEVIN WONG PLAYS MAHJONG but he's not that good at it
17. Glenn (WH's cousin) cannot sing for nuts
18. WH's stuck on the Woglinde and SZ's stuck on the Elsa trying to deliver curry. Way to get stuck on such a great game >_>
19. 4 Leopaldons on one screen = Major wth
20. Dark Angel is funnnnnnn to do on people >_>
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Not too in the mood to continue blogging right now, so I'll leave my SMW post and my NS post till later (Maybe afternoon/night or tomorrow)
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