Tales of Graces F localization~

Yes, finally we get another Tales game. After like what, since Vesperia on the 360 which was in August of 2008. Way to go Bamco~ Couldn't even give us Vesperia on the PS3 which had WAY more stuff in it. Like it was completely redone and it was a game you already had most of the translation for and the rights to. Whatever though. No one really cares about it anymore. So anyways, Graces was beginning to seem like a lost cause too after the Wii version epically failed to come over. It was riddled with bugs anyways though from what I heard so that's probably why. Don't know what the deal was with not bringing over any the DS mothership titles. Oh well. Lets hope Bamco keeps it up and brings over that new game coming to Japan sometime this year as well. Xillia is what it's called. Not getting my hopes up on that of course. But I am looking forward to Graces and playing another true Tales game finally.

Oh and on another Tales note, Bandai Entertainment apparently acquired the license to the Tales of the Abyss anime back in July. So, when that's available on DVD or whatever they're doing it shall be mine. My favorite Tales game and one of my favorite games in general. And I loved the anime cuz I've already watched it with subs. Never thought they'd bring it over here of course. So yay for that as well~

Etrian Odyssey 2 beaten~

After quite a long time I finally beat this game ^^; Well, you don't really fly through these games in the first place. But anyways, the story for what it was was pretty nice. I mean, the EO series isn't known for its amazing storylines or anything. It's known for its character customization and exploration more than anything else. And they definitely do that in an awesome way and keep making it better. Anyways, the story goes that the duke of High Lagaard is deathly sick and his daughter is looking for something called the Grail of Kings to make a panacea to heal him. This so called Grail of Kings exists at the top of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth and they've been looking for a strong group of explorers who might reach the top and find it. Which is whatever team you build in the game obviously.

So you explore and get some other items she needs along the way. And when you finally reach the top of the floating castle you meet the Overlord. Apparently a human who isn't really human anymore who's been researching a way to grant humanity immortality. Though the only thing he's managed to do is turned people into crazy monsters. Hello Colossus on the 23rd floor. So anyways, you have to fight him to get the Grail of Kings and he has two forms. The scary thing is after you kill the first form if you're not really paying attention to the text you might pick the wrong choice to a question and get an instant game over. Gotta be careful. Anyways, his first form isn't bad but the second form can definitely knock you around. Twas a very satisfying final boss fight I must say.

The stratum designs and environments they chose for those were nice. The simple forest of the first stratum, then the fall atmosphere of the second stratum, a frozen winter land for the third, falling flower petals in the fourth, the weird golden castle design of the fifth, and the fields of flowers in the forbidden wood of the sixth. And I chose not to do post game because I didn't feel like it and there's no extra rewards in EO3 for doing it. Not like with EO1 to EO2. I did unlock the sixth stratum to see what it looked like and explored it a little bit but yeah. I was wanting to move on to EO3 so there you go. So, here be the team I used for most of the game:

Thunder (Landsknecht)
Level: 64
Main skill: All-Slash

Rami (Protector)
Level: 64
Main skill: Smite

Wolforg (Beast)
Level: 64
Main skill: Devour

Aika (Medic)
Level: 64
Main skill: Salve 2

Arcadia (Gunner)
Level: 64
Main skill: Ricochet

As you can see some be named after people xD Anyways Wolforg is the only one I didn't have from the beginning because you had to unlock the beast class. Which was after the first stratum. So yeah, moving on to EO3 now which is already proving to be interesting. Totally different character classes which is great so at some point I shall be making a post about first impressions of it and SO4 as well. So until then~

New job~

Alright, my job search was kinda short lived xD Started pretty much 2 weeks ago and I've landed a job already. I interviewed with them last Tuesday during all the snow and sickness mess and got offered a job on Thursday. And I would have been crazy not to accept. So, my new title officially starting February 1st is a business analyst. More dreams and goals just keep being achieved and this gets the ball rolling towards something else as well~ There are some things I will miss about my first job but it's time to be moving on to bigger and better things. That's the entire point so looking forward to the future. Especially getting to see a certain someone again at some point~

Sick week, snow week, interview week

It's been one heck of a week. And I'm tired already ^^; That's even with not working for three days so far. But that's because I've been sick like crazy the past few days too. Freakin' sucks. And then I've had two job interviews too. That I went to despite being sick which I'm not saying was very smart but still. I need a new job. We've seen a good amount of snow. Enough to be annoying and mess things up. Especially Monday. I don't know the totals of what fell around here but yeah. Knox County schools back in session tomorrow~ Which means back to work for me xD

Anyways, I was wanting to do like a first impressions post about Star Ocean 4 but I haven't gotten to play it enough to do that yet. Past the first boss fight yes. Which I can say the battle system is super fun. No joke. tri-Ace strikes again in this area. They never disappoint in that. Tis why SO3 was so fun. But hopefully, I'll get to play more soon. Like this weekend. And maybe there will be more to come on Etrian Odyssey 2 since I'm getting in close to beating that game. But anyways, till then~

Donkey Kong Country Returns beaten~

Yes, another game beaten xD And this was a last life finish which is the best kind and most epic~ Anyways, so, some comments about this game. First off, the music is superb. Why? Because they remixed stuff from the first DKC game and made it sound awesome. But it's not as if they couldn't come up with their own music or something. There were original tracks as well and they were great too. Music is a special part of any game for me so it gets big points in this category. And as I said not just for the nostalgia factor.

Next, levels. The game is divided into 8 areas. Obviously a staple of most platformers that goes back to the old days. First one is pretty easy. In fact the first level has the same name as the first level in DKC1: Jungle Hijinx. But while they are easy, they quickly make you learn the mechanics fast. And if you don't get these down you ain't going far. You may think well duh to that statement but seriously. Do not go into this game thinking the controls, the level design, or even the overall thinking that went into the original three DKC games is the same. I mean, I didn't but because I was so used to the other three games and played them so much I still paid for it.



The 2nd area is definitely my favorite one in the game. It's the beach area and there's lots pirate ships and things of that nature. In one of those levels you have to dodge cannon fire and it's really fun xD There's also the one where you have to run from a giant squid that's chasing you and breaking the path behind you. Oh and dodging his tentacles as they spring up randomly. And one more level I'll give praise to was one where you had to dodge these really high waves because there was a storm on the beach. You had to duck behind or hide behind rocks or other things to keep from getting washed away. That whole area is memorable to me and is definitely the most fun. Even the bosses of that area were pirates which is great~ Oh and speaking of bosses, they were actually pretty good in this game. The final boss in particular provided a pretty good challenge. As I said before I beat him on my last life so it got intense there~

Um, some negatives about the game. First off, there are nowhere near enough DK barrels in the levels. By my standards, there should be one at the beginning and one near or after the checkpoint in a level. Even though Diddy isn't even a separate playable character anyways. He just gives you two more hits and stays with you until those hits are gone. You move faster and can hover though while you have him so it's useful. I'd rather have him than not even though I beat the final boss without him cuz they didn't give you anymore DK barrel once you reached him. Another thing is the mine cart levels and barrel rocket levels. Those things were dang brutal and evil. You hit one thing and it's instant death. Really annoying. Thank goodness for checkpoints with those levels. And there were other annoying things to the point where I thought the creators of the game wanted to punish me for being so used to the old DKC mindset. But whatever. There are more positives than negatives and it was still a good game for what it was worth.

Don't get me wrong though. I am in complete agreement with other people that this is not a DKC game. Nowhere near being able to be called DKC4. It's just a throw back to DKC1 on the Wii, taking advantage of updated graphics and enhanced controls. But I'll take the old stuff any day. So anyways, now I'm off to play Star Ocean 2 and 4 so expect alot of Star Ocean stuff in the near future xD

Cross Edge beaten~

And the true end obtained~ Which was um, interesting to say the least at the end there xD Of course it begged many questions from me but I wasn't about to start questioning things logically about this game. Anyways, story wise it was pretty much what I expected from it. It had alot of funny stuff in it and an interesting enough plot for what it was. I did enjoy it for what it was. The battle system really kicked butt once I got into it. I mean, I got into combos enough to score a 188 hit on a boss so I guess I did alright in that respect. My main party remained Lyner, Morrigan, Raze, and Aurica throughout the game. Twas my fave and I made some great combos with them.

One thing though ^^; I know they meant to put alot of sexual innuendo and stuff like that to please fans of the different series. They want their eye candy and blah blah. But twas kinda too much breast action and emphasis of that nature for me. I mean seriously, Anesha's level up quote is just...no. I did my best to skip it as fast as possible every time. I guess as a female playing this game it just annoyed me more than it would someone else. I mean, there was funny stuff and then there was just forced stuff. Didn't ruin the game for me but that's my only beef really. Anyways, good game and I enjoyed it alot while it lasted. Don't know if I'll end up doing post game some day or not. Too many other games ^^; So for now, I have DKCR to finish and Star Ocean 2 and 4 to beat. Going into Star Ocean mode~ Until then~

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! May 2011 be even better than 2010~ Lets make it a good one ^_^